HOW TO SELF-PUBLISH


So, you’ve written your book and you want to get it out into the world – how do you publish it?
Here is our comprehensive guide to self-publishing and the questions you’ll need to consider.

Initial questions
Why self-publish your book?
What is your aim?
Your options – how exactly should you self-publish?

WHY SELF PUBLISH BOOK?

Why do people self-publish?

There are often a number of reasons, but here are the ones we hear the most on CompletelyNovel:

I want to earn more royalties from my book sales
I want more control over the way my book looks and is edited
My book is relevant right now and I don’t want to wait for agents/publishers to get back to me
I want to use self-publishing as a way to attract the attention of a ‘traditional’ publisher


Why not get a traditional publishing company to publish your book?

A number of changes in the publishing industry over the past ten years have meant that although more titles are being published, there are actually fewer opportunities for new authors to get a ‘traditional’ publishing contract.

Publishers’ margins on books have decreased considerably. There are now fewer major publishing houses in existence than there used to be. Those that do exist have focused more on publishing books that have a proven track record, or have celebrity names attached to them, so they can guarantee a certain number of sales.

This leaves new authors in a difficult position in relation to these ‘traditional publishers’ and increasingly, self-publishing is becoming the best way to get your books read. Some début authors have found that they have very little marketing assistance from their traditional publishers, leading many authors to seek out self-publishing options so they can keep a higher percentage of royalties for their efforts.

Can I self-publish and ‘traditionally’ publish?

Yes! In fact, more and more authors are now doing both. These are sometimes refereed to as ‘Hybrid’ authors, and they are authors who might have landed a traditional contract after self-publishing, or have self-published books alongside their traditionally published books.


WHAT IS YOUR AIM?

This has a big influence on the right option for you. Did you write your book with a view to selling large numbers of copies commercially, or are you simply aiming to print copies for family and friends? Do you have a market already, or are you starting from scratch and so will need to build your market as you go?


RESEARCH YOUR OPTIONS - HOW EXACTLY SHOULD YOU SELF-PUBLISH?
“Low cost self-publishing services cut
out a lot of the technical skills and time
needed to self-publish, but ensure that you
still have your freedom.”

You’ve probably seen or heard of a few different self-publishing companies who will help you publish your book. We outline three of the ‘main’ options below, or, you can check out this infographic.

Option 1. Do everything yourself

One option is to go it totally alone and, effectively, be your own publishing company. This will mean that you will need to manage all stages of the book creation, distribution and marketing yourself. Starting your own publishing company has never been easier, but it’s still going to require a lot of time (and most likely a lot of money too). Bear in mind that you will need to take on (or find someone else to take on) designing, creating and producing a PDF of the cover (this requires a certain degree of manipulating PDFs and using design programs such as Adobe InDesign or Quark) and setting up all the relationships you need with printers (you’ll need to learn about book sizes, paper types and binding). You’ll then need to set up your links with distributors and retailers too. This is certainly easier than it used to be, but requires getting to know a number of different systems, interfaces and often costs money to set up.



Main advantage: Starting your own publishing company offers the most freedom in terms of how the finished product will look.
Main disadvantage: Self-publishing this way is likely to be more expensive in terms of time and in terms of the money you will need to spend upfront.


Option 2. Self-publish using a publishing platform

You can also use an online, low-cost self-publishing service such as CompletelyNovel.com to cut out a lot of the technical skills, time and money needed to self-publish, but ensure that you still have the freedom to make your book look as you want it to.

You may want to source editing and design services alongside this, or you can use online tools to create your book yourself. These self-publishing services are generally linked to print-on-demand printers. Companies such as CompletelyNovel shouldn’t take any rights to your work, so you’ll still be able to pursue options for publication elsewhere.

This is generally the cheapest option, because the companies will have automated the majority of the processes involved in publishing a book, and will handle the registering and distribution of the book on your behalf.



Main advantage: usually very little upfront cost and a more flexible option.
Main disadvantage: you may want to source expert editorial and design services yourself.



Option 3. Use a self-publishing house

There are other self-publishing services that cater for people who have very little time, and want to hand over as much of the technical aspects of producing their book as possible to someone else. You will usually liaise with the company directly and there will generally be ‘packages’ offered which may include editing, design and other services. These can cost from £600 / $1,000 up to £20,000 / $25,000 dollars for the most expensive ones. Be aware that this upfront charge won’t necessarily include the actual printing of the books, and it may still be largely down to you to market and promote the book.


Main advantage: not much of your time is needed to get the book produced.
Main disadvantage: you can often end up paying a lot for services you don’t need and it’s not normally very transparent as to who will be providing those services.


Keep your options open

There’s nothing to stop you approaching publishers and agents while pursuing the self-publishing option. If you can use self-publishing as a way to build up your profile, establish whether there is a market for your book and essentially build your ‘business case’, then you could seriously improve your chances.



“What is vanity publishing?”

‘Vanity Publishers’ are ‘publishers’ who will tell you that you have a great book and offer to publish it for you, but charge you a lot of money for what is actually very little value. They may tell you that your book is sure to sell many copies, insist that you pay for a print-run of thousands, and then expect you to take these books and sell them yourself. Many of these vanity publishers will take the publishing rights to your book. They very rarely offer any help with marketing or sales and should generally be avoided.

If you’re worried about stumbling across a publisher like this, we recommend googling the company name and read what reviews have been posted on independent websites. You can also check out Writer Beware hosted by SFWA for a list of suspicious agencies and publishers.

HOW TO DESIGN YOUR BOOK COVER

Look at the rest of the market

It’s important that your book looks professional and the downfall of many self-published books is that they look, well, self-published! It’s worth taking a good, hard look at how the professionals do it. Study books that have been published in the same genre or subject area as yours – what do they have in common? Then go about making your book fit in. More about this here.

Unless you are a very experienced designer, avoid creating a cover that looks radically different. A book cover needs to be unique, but more importantly, it needs to communicate what your book is about. Think how similar the covers of thrillers are – that’s no accident.


Should I hire a professional book cover designer?

It’s not essential to use a professional book designer, but some professional input can make a big difference, especially when it comes to creating something both striking and able to fit in with the current trends. If you can budget for a professional cover design, then we recommend doing so.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN BOOK COVER

Printing companies tend to have very strict requirements on how book covers are formatted. Amongst other things, you need to ensure that the bleed is correct, the right colour set is being used, the cover is a high enough resolution and the spine width has been calculated correctly.

Thankfully, there are some great online tools to help authors do this without any need for specialist software knowledge. CompletelyNovel’s cover creator, for example, enables you to drag and drop images onto a template, and then it sorts out all the complex sizing and saving elements for you.

TYPESETTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT

You can study professionally published books to find out the relevant standards for typesetting. Most novels, for example, look very similar on the inside, with only subtle differences or embellishments when it comes to chapter headings.

Learning to use some of the more advanced tools in Microsoft Word such as page breaks and paragraph styles, as well as taking time to format the main body of your text, is well worth your time.

EDITING YOUR BOOK

If you’ve spent a long time writing your book, it’s worth spending a decent amount of time editing it too. Of course, you will probably have been editing it as you went along, but it’s notoriously difficult to edit your own work well, so it’s worth getting an outside opinion before you publish it.


Feedback from friends and family
It’s definitely worth getting someone to read through your book, at the very least someone who you trust to spot the things you might have missed. Remember to take all advice from friends and family with a pinch of salt, unless they happen to be a major editor. Writing and reading can be really subjective, so because one person doesn’t like it, it doesn’t mean everyone will feel the same.

SHOULD I USE PROFESSIONAL EDITING SERVICES?


You want to make sure that your book looks professional. We’ve heard from a number of writers who’ve said that professional editing services have helped them enormously, and that it was exactly the kind of independent, informed feedback they needed to get their manuscript in good shape.

To get the most from an edit of this kind, you need to have the right attitude and be able to handle some constructive criticism – be prepared for editors advising you to ‘kill your darlings’. Remember that professional editing is still just one person’s opinion, but if they are a well-respected editor, it’s certainly worth taking it seriously!


HOW TO PRINT YOUR BOOK


Bulk buying vs. print-on-demand (POD)

Gone are the days where an author needed to invest large sums of money into a long print run – often incurring storage fees (unless you happen to have a large house), the faff of posting the books yourself and the fear that the books wouldn’t sell.

Print-on-demand technology has come a long way and it is now an efficient alternative for self-publishing authors to print and distribute books with no upfront fees, without compromising on the quality of the book. With print-on-demand, books are literary printed in runs as little as one copy and only when an order appears. Also, as the books are often sent direct from the printer to the retailer or reader, the author doesn’t need to handle the sending of the book at all. The print price of the book is taken from the retail price by the printer, so the author should only ever receive royalties as profit – taking away the risk associated with print publishing.

However, as you’d expect, buying books in bulk means the individual price of a book will generally go down. Buying long runs of your book might be a good idea if you are selling copies face-to-face at events and you have an existing client base. Find out more about the price of printing in bulk here.


....................TO BE CONTINUED

Courtesy: completelynovel.com


PS. If you need any HELP with publishing online, you can reach Erhun Writing and Editing Services via sundayerhun@gmail.com or WhatsApp on 08164041005.

We could help you edit your work and run your online publishing for a SMALL FEE.

God bless!

HOW TO GO ABOUT DIGITAL PUBLISHING (EBOOKS)

eBooks have boomed over the last decade and there are now lots of opportunities for writers to publish for a low cost by creating an eBook.

There are a variety of different eBook formats – ePub has now emerged as the favourite, but you may also want your book to be available as a PDF (standard format) and an .AZW file, as this is the proprietary format being used by Amazon.

You can pay people to convert your book into an eBook Format for you, or you can use some of the free services available on the web such as Calibre. Doing it yourself may take longer, but it is another way of cutting down on the costs of self-publishing. We’d definitely recommend doing some online searches and looking for forum discussions on eBook conversions, so you can get up to date with the latest tips from other self-publishers.


DO YOU NEED AN ISBN?
ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number and is often associated with a barcode you find on the back cover of a book.You will need an ISBN if you want your print book to be stocked in the traditional retail and mainstream online channels. Each country has its own supplier of ISBNs who you will need to contact. In the UK it is Nielsen who is responsible for dishing out ISBNs.

If you self-publish on your own, then you will need to buy a set of 10 ISBNs yourself. If you publish using a self-publishing service like CompletelyNovel, then they will be able to supply individual ISBNs for you as part of a publishing package. With CompletelyNovel for example, ISBNs are automatically included on every book at no extra cost.

Click here to learn about the CompletelyNovel a Plus Plan, which gives you two ISBNs.

DISTRIBUTION OF SELF-PUBLISHED BOOKS

“Distribution is a large chunk of the
niity gritty essentials that will help
get your book out there.”

Physical distribution

If you want your books to be available in a variety of book retail channels, you need to consider how your book will be distributed.

Some print-on-demand companies handle distribution in-house and many will have a website from which customers can buy your book directly. If you sell through these platforms, you will usually be able to keep a decent amount of the royalties. For example, CompletelyNovel allows readers to buy books direct from CompletelyNovel.com, as well as with third-party retailers such as Amazon.

If you want your book sold through retailers, many self-publishing companies can set this up for you. Retailers and distributors will require a cut of the sale price of the book, so you will need to sell the book to them at what is known as a ‘trade discount price’. This is between 30% and 60% lower than the retail price, so it may mean that you need to set the price of your book quite a bit higher and have a much lower royalty. On CompletelyNovel, retailers take a 30% discount, and as we don’t take any commission from your book sales, you can keep 100% of the remaining royalties. See how this compares to other platforms on this price comparison infographic.





Distributing books yourself

If you want to handle your distribution yourself, you may need to visit each book shop individually and handle any mail orders on your own. Some bookshops will accept a limited number of your books on a ‘sale or return’ basis, so if they don’t sell, then you will have to pick the books up at a later stage and issue a credit note. It’s important to really weigh up the value of your book being in a physical bookshop. Unless your book will get a good spot at the front of the shop, it’s not likely to be worth your while in terms of copies sold vs. time it takes to complete the order.


Digital distribution

If you have a digital edition, there are a number of different eBook channels that you can sell into. Many have tools for self-publishers to upload and sell books through this. If you use a self-publishing service, they may offer distribution into these channels too. Check what’s on offer, as this is an area which is growing quickly.



MARKETING YOUR SELF-PUBLISHED BOOK

“You don’t need any previous
experience in marketing to
do it well.”

If you want to sell your book beyond your family and friends you will need to market it, and it’s wise to consider how you’re going to do that before you self-publish. A lot of authors we speak to often let this idea of marketing hold them back from self-publishing. In our experience though – any author with the passion, creativity and drive to write and finish a book can then market it, with the right tools and information.

The best advice we can give about book marketing is to throw the same creative energy you used to write the book, into marketing it. Think outside the box, keep reading and learning, and don’t give up until you really have to.

You might like to read more about ways to market your book in our CompletelyNovel Guide to Book Marketing.



It’s useful to start building up a network of contacts before you publish, or consider crowdfunding your book. We’d recommend that you come up with several different avenues that you can pursue, as you are likely to find that some of them work better for you than others. You should consider blogging (and which other blogs you should contact), marketing through other social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, online communities and setting up a mailing list.

Consider new and traditional channels – from getting in touch with your local newspaper, to buying Facebook ads, there are lots of options. Don’t rule anything out, even if initially it takes you quite a way outside your comfort zone – it’s often worth playing around and seeing how you get on.

More advice on how to start marketing your book, here.

REMEMBER, EVEN A GREAT BOOK NEEDS SOMEONE TO SELL IT!

It’s important to be realistic and remember that even if your book is a masterpiece, there is a lot of noise and competition in the current book market and it takes real perseverance to make your book successful. However, if you have self-published your book, success will taste all the sweeter when it comes. So, stay focused and positive but be prepared for hard work… and don’t quit your day job just yet!

Self-publishing is an industry that is changing all the time. There are lots of different players out there and printers who are developing their technology in a way that is opening up lots of new options. There are plenty of new opportunities emerging online in terms of digital publishing, too. Whatever the future holds for self-publishing, it’s sure to get bigger and better! It’s such an exciting time for writers, and we are so pleased to be working in such an exciting industry.

HOW MUCH DOES SELF-PUBLISHING COST?

The variety of options available when it comes to self-publishing means that the amount of money it costs largely depends on how much you can afford to spend.

Just because you can self-publish at a low cost through online services such as CompletelyNovel, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should aim to do everything for as little money as possible. What it does mean is that you can focus your cash on the most important aspects for you.

For example, if you are on a fairly low budget, don’t have an audience ready-and-waiting to buy your book, but do want to give your book the best chance of succeeding – you could be looking at something along the lines of the following:


Good luck!

Wow this is awesome