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How to Self-Publish a Book: The Complete Guide to Publish Like a Pro

Self-publishing is the act of publishing media, especially a creative work of art, as the author or artist, without the use of a publishing house or company. Self-publishing is commonly referred to in the author and book publishing industry, but people can self-publish other works of art, such as music and visual art. In terms of self-publishing a book, an author writes a book and complete the entire publishing process themselves, such as editing, designing, and formatting the book without the aid of a traditional publishing company.

In line with the publishing house’s preferences, try to get a profound knowledge of both the company and its specific guidelines for writers. You may be writing a book for adults; hence, you will need to check whether complete manuscripts are admitted since only sample chapters or inquiry letters may be requested. By nature, you wish to meet the instructions of the addressed publisher; otherwise, your book is likely to face the closed door to the public. You have several options where to learn the expectations from you as an author: the writer’s market literature, other manuals alike, and publishers’ websites.

Deciding which platform to use to self-publish your book will again depend on your goals and constraints. If you simply would like to have a completed book to satisfy your own creative needs and are not viewing it as a commercial endeavor, you should probably go with the easiest option. That would likely mean using a retailer such as amazon kdp or barnes & noble press, which are free to use, and allow you to quickly.

Overall, i found the process of publishing an ebook required learning a lot of new things. There are so many ebook file formats and so many distributors to deal with. I decided to use smashwords to simplify things by handling many of the ebook formats and about 10 or so distribution channels with one upload. The process of editing the book into a format that works well for ebooks took a lot of work and study of the smashwords style guide.

Steps to Self-Publishing a Book

The steps to self-publish don’t actually mean that you will do all of those tasks yourself, but rather that you will oversee and fund the entire process. Because the entire book writing and production process is your responsibility as a self-published author, it’s important to make room in your publishing budget to hire professionals for the services you need, such as book editing and cover design.

There are a lot of benefits self-publishing offers authors. Aside from full control of your work, you can easily make your book available to the public. It’s no wonder why more and more authors now prefer the self-publishing route. Self-publishing is becoming an increasingly popular option for independent authors who want to promote their books without having to rely upon a traditional publishing house. Not only are traditional publishing contracts hard to land, but you also give up a large portion of control to the publisher in terms of ownership rights.

Producing the book cover was actually one of the most intimidating steps in the process of publishing an ebook. The old saying goes “never judge a book by its cover”, but apparently most people don’t follow this advice. The cover is a big factor on whether potential readers will click on your ebook to learn more or not. Lots of ebooks have sloppy or amateur looking covers, and that scares readers away.

Founded in 2011, bookbaby has a wide distribution network, including the large retailers amazon, apple ibooks, barnes & noble, and kobo, in over 170 countries. For those who like the idea of a platform that offers support with all aspects of the self-publishing process, bookbaby offers comprehensive packages. These include the steps needed to get your book ready for publication, such as editing and design services.

How Much Does It Cost to Self-Publish a Book?

To get the best fruit in a competitive area, publishing houses define themselves with diametrically different requirements and procedures. Why their deals and guidelines serve the very target you want to hit in order to bring your hard work to daylight? who would willingly take up the path of disillusionment due to unnecessary declines and the costs involved in the final book price where only a tiny percentage is saved for you as an author?

Yes, there are some preparation costs involved in high-quality book cover design, editing and proofreading, and print on demand proof copies. But the actual cost of publishing and distribution of your finished product is absolutely free. It is worth remembering that self-publishing is not new at all. Mark twain self-published. Importantly, for indie authors, you retain all the rights to your book, and you are paid directly and usually monthly for your book sales by the retailers you choose to use.

Less upfront costs for the author. Since the publisher handles the production expenses, the author doesn’t worry about paying directly out-of-pocket so the cost to publish a book is less. Social prestige. Having publishing connections means your book will be easier to get into major bookstores. It can also be validating for some authors. Less responsibilities. You write the book, and let the publisher deal with the rest (ideally).

Amazon is now offering independent authors and publishers who use its ebook self-publishing program, the kindle digital text platform (dtp), a 70 percent royalty option. For each book sold from the kindle store for kindle, kindle dx, or one of the kindle apps for ipad, iphone, ipod touch, blackberry, pc, mac and android phones, authors and publishers who choose the new 70 percent royalty option will receive 70 percent of the list price, minus delivery costs.

Final Tips for Self-Publishing

Publishing your diary is a brave choice, and good luck with its success! here are a few final tips: consider changing others’ names or using initials to protect their privacy, whether or not you’ve written controversial things about them. Never put in detailed contact information such as phone numbers or addresses. Edit your diary–your readers won’t be familiar with your past, so don’t leave them wondering about certain references.

Even when you are working with the most user-friendly publishing systems, there are likely to be glitches or problem areas that require some expert advice. While you could probably solve some of these issues by using a trial and error method, why not save yourself the stress and headaches by trying these tips first?

In this section, we have rounded up some answers to some common troubleshooting questions to help you move past these obstacles and get back to work quickly. For instance, one of the most common problems is that quotation marks and apostrophes do not display properly.

Here, we’ll address the various aspects of self-publishing a book.

Since the author oversees all aspects of the process, the costs to self-publish a book will vary. You can self-publish a book for as little, or as much money as you can afford. On average, the costs to self-publish a quality book will be about $1,500 – $2,000 depending on the professional services you use during the publishing process. Many platforms to self-publish are actually free to publish your book, but where the costs accrue is during the editing, illustrating, designing, and marketing phases.

While most aspects of writing depend on factors that vary greatly among authors, getting a book traditionally published is a notoriously time-consuming process. First, your manuscript must be accepted by a publishing house, which is an ordeal in and of itself; most houses accumulate a “slush pile” of manuscripts that takes months to work through (if ever!). Once a literary agent reads your pitch, they may still choose to reject it, but take heed: many authors—including incredibly successful ones, such as j. K. Rowling —have had their novels rejected by several publishing houses before they were offered a book deal.

We cannot agree any less to the point that the ebook self publishing has dominated the regime of the publishing houses, who used to adhere the monopoly while publishing the books, no doubt the new trend replaced the paradigm in many aspects. The wish to have vogue let the ebook revolution boost up as the conventional publisher were not willing to take risk on debut or new authors, publisher were keeping the eye over the famous and most demanded authors so that they could sell maximum copies, the publishers don’t have the business about cost of each books rather they prefer the number of books published.

This series highlights aspects of my experience self-publishing the alexandria project. If you’d like to read the book this series is based on, you can read the first three chapters for free here. Might as well come right out and say it. This is where the going gets tough. Up until now, everything about self-publishing has been pretty much under your control – what your book will be about, what it will look like, and how you’ll get it to market. But now, like blanche dubois in a streetcar named desire , it’s time to learn that you can’t rely on the kindness of strangers.

There are so many pros of self-publishing a book.

So, you’ve decided to self-publish your book. Congratulations! the decision to self-publish shouldn’t be made lightly. If you haven’t yet researched the pros and cons of publishing your book independently, i encourage you to read through the article linked here. If, however, you’ve done your due diligence and you’re ready to begin your self-publishing journey, today’s article will serve as an overview of the self-publishing process.

Typically the author retains 100% of the profits between the wholesale and base pricing
when it comes to reputation, outskirts press has been at the top of our list for years. And we’re not alone in our assessment: the company enjoys an “a+” rating from and is accredited by the better business bureau over nearly two decades of being in operation. In an industry like self-publishing, where it seems like companies come and go overnight, that’s very reassuring for nervous, new authors and experienced pros alike.

You’ve conceptualized the perfect idea and completed the titanic feat of writing a book. Congrats! now all that’s left to do is publish! if only it were that easy. The truth is that writing the book is the easy part. Now you must undertake the tremendous journey toward self-publishing a book without breaking the bank. If you’ve arrived here, you’ve likely felt indecisive between the options of traditional versus self-publishing. There are pros and cons to each, but self-publishing offers more creative freedom, complete ownership over content, and a 100% share of royalties.

Do you know how many potential buyers there are for your book? that is a difficult and complex question, even for traditional publishers. However, traditional publishers often have large and well-funded marketing and research departments working for them to help make their projections more accurate. For self-publishing, this question might be next to impossible to answer. Complicating the issue is that even if one could estimate a potential audience size for self-published books, estimating the actual buy percentage might be a discouraging exercise. Prospects and actual buyers can be a fraction of a fraction (no, i didn’t mistype that) of all readers for a genre or type of book.

Book Editing

Professional editing is absolutely necessary before publishing your book. Even the stephen kings and john grishams of the world rely on editors to polish their work before publication. Recognize the value that an editor brings to your work and don’t skip this step!.

Publishing solo, an award-winning website guides writers through self-publishing steps
obviously, before publishing a book, the first thing to do is to write the book. It does not have to be perfect! editors and proofreaders will polish it once you enter the publishing process. In this article, i do not teach how to write a book. As a publishing coach, my specialty is teaching writers how to publish a book—how to publish a novel, non-fiction book, or how to publish a children’s book; and how to publish a cookbook. I teach my clients—the 3 stages to the completion of a book.

If you have never attempted writing a recipe, take a video of you making the dish. Then view the video and write down each action as you see it happening on the screen. This will help you identify steps that are second nature for you, but may not be for your readers. If you have video editing software, see if it has the capability to capture frames from your video as jpeg photo files. If it does, this video could serve double duty by providing you with step-by-step photos for your cookbook! if you are doing a print book, just make sure that these screen captures are high resolution (usually 300dpi).

I self published my first book in the middle of 2011. It was nonfiction and i did it as a way to promote my business. My first book wasn’t my only writing and publishing experience. I was a marketing and pr copywriter for a few years in my corporate career. I wrote some educational materials while i was teaching. I was a trade newspaper editor for 15 years, writing hundreds and hundreds of articles in addition to editing articles. Plus, i had developed some marketing tools which i self published and sold.

Book Design

The next step is designing your book! there are two main steps in the book design process: interior design and book cover design.

Remember, this is a condensed process on how to publish a book yourself. You’ll want to educate yourself on the best process for each step to avoid making certain publishing mistakes. And you’ll notice that many of the steps involved can be tailored to your specific situation. For example, you can hire a book cover designer , or with the right tools and skill, you can make your own.

You will receive a digital proof at each step in the design process. You can use this file to verify changes recommended by you, request new changes or even proof your final document before your book goes into print. Important: as a self-published author, it is your responsibility to give the best and error-free content to your readers. You are requested to take time during the final proofing to make sure that there are no errors in the book.

To simplify, see the five basic self-pubishing steps listed below:
book structure. Add title pages, dedication, preface, foreword, and more. Decide on the pieces for front and back matter, and order them. Book cover: hire a book cover designer to create your book cover. Sales depend on a well-crafted book cover done by a specialist. Book interior: design to flow with cover, as well as create chapter heads, page numbers, headings, organizing front and back matter.

Book Cover Design

To recap self-publishing, it goes something like this: you write a book, you have the book edited, formatted, and designed. Then, you have a printer or publishing platform publish your book, while you market the book and do book maintenance. As with anything, there are some advantages and disadvantages to consider, which we’ll cover in the next section.

Have distribution packages for both ebooks and print books, and offer a print-on-demand service. Bookbaby can also help you with marketing. They offer a number of different packages as well as individual services. Their most comprehensive package, which costs $1,699, includes cover design, formatting, 25 print books, distribution, a facebook ad campaign, and a listing in the bookbaby store, bookshop. They also don’t take a portion of your.

Formerly known as createspace , amazon’s own print-on-demand service has the benefit of sharing kindle direct publishing’s platform. Authors already selling ebooks on kdp can easily launch a print edition by uploading a formatted pdf and cover design with a spine and a back. With kdp’s expanded distribution option, authors can sell to shops and libraries across the globe — though it’s important to note many booksellers are inclined to order through amazon.

I ended up making my own book cover using a couple images files and some text with the book title and author’s name. The tools i used to make my book cover were microsoft office picture manager and powerpoint. You can use almost any graphics programs that you are familiar using to make a book cover. I think my book cover turned out ok, but i did spend a couple hours designing it and making the final image the desired size.

Look at Competitive Book Prices

Because they don’t have a clue about the real costs of their self publishing adventures, authors can often underprice or overprice their books. Plus, as discussed earlier, because they haven’t done a competitive analysis of books in the marketplace, they also don’t have a clue about customers’ expectations in terms of book prices. By underpricing their books, these clueless authors may gain high sales volume with low total profits. Or, by overpricing, they turn off many potential reader buyers. In either scenario, their incomes are negatively impacted.

Consider Your Publishing Goals

Almost every author has a goal of becoming a new york times bestseller. As self-publishing continues to rise, so does the number of books published every year. Competition is fierce in the publishing industry. How many books would you like to sell in the first six months? how many reviews would you like to have? take the time to create realistic author goals based on comparable books in your genre.

Less support. It’s all in your hands, which can be very scary for some authors. It can also be lonely without a supportive community. No one is pushing you. It’s up to you to set your own deadlines, make realistic writing goals and get the ball rolling on your published book. More upfront costs. Self-published authors hire professionals for publishing services like editing and designing.

There is a caveat: you’ll have to take a diy approach that suits your budget and publishing goals. Navigating the self-publishing waters is overwhelming for new authors. As you’ll quickly learn, the entire process boils down to a solid strategy and logistics. Fortunately, you don’t have to compromise quality or integrity because you’ll learn every step of self-publishing in this comprehensive guide — from editing to pre- and post-launch marketing.

You’ll need to evaluate self publishing platforms to determine which one is a good fit for your publishing skills, budget, and sales goals.

Get Your Book Edited

No gatekeeper. There isn’t anyone standing in your way of getting your book published. The only person that can stop you from sharing your book with the world is you! your own timeline. Authors that publish on their own can get their book to market quicker than the traditional publishing process. Complete creative control. You have the final say in how you want your book to be edited, formatted, and designed.

Authors can benefit from our team’s 10 years of self publishing experience and all the support services involved to make that happen. Most of our team have self published a book themselves so they know most of the pitfalls to avoid, which are:

  • unprofessional book design or no design all
  • not professionally edited and proofread
  • misleading main title and subtitle
  • insufficient summary or description on the back cover

Before the mid-2000s, the only alternative to mainstream publishing for the would-be author was expensive and often scammy “vanity presses” that would publish anything — for example, your uncle’s unedited, badly parsed family history — for a price. But then, new technologies appeared and revolutionized the industry. First came print-on-demand (pod), the ability to produce single issues and small print runs of books rather than thousands at a time. Suddenly it became affordable for authors and small publishers to create professional-looking books on a budget — while, at the same time, the internet made it possible to sell them.

Kindle direct publishing (kdp) allows you to easily set up a pre-order for your kindle ebook. As of this writing, pre-orders are not available for print paperback books through kdp. Also as of this writing, you can set up a release date up to one year in the future. When you set up your pre-order, you upload the final version of your manuscript. However, you can upload edited versions of the manuscript prior to the official release date. But the version you first upload should be complete and ready for delivery.

Entering the aggregator market in 2015, publishdrive is fairly new to the scene. But that hasn’t stopped them from quickly establishing themselves as an option worth considering. They have relationships with over 4,500 publishers and 400 stores worldwide. They distribute to the major retailers: apple books, amazon, barnes & noble, kobo, and google books. Expertise in international distribution is one of their notable features. They have a few stores in eastern europe and have headquarters in hungary.

If you’re wondering whether you need to release your book in print and ebook format, in our opinion, the answer is definitely yes. Publishing your book in both formats is pretty much an essential these days, especially if you’re an indie author. First and foremost, it allows you to reach a wider audience, but it also carries a range of extra benefits. Perhaps the most appealing of these is the cost factor. Unlike a print book, which incurs printing and distribution costs that fall back on you as an indie author, an ebook only involves the one-time production cost incurred at the formatting stage – meaning you get to keep a much higher percentage of the price readers are paying for your ebook.

Once you’ve finished filling in your book details, you’ll be taken to the book content section. Here you’ll have to work through a few final sections:

digital rights management (drm): drm is basically a system meant to protect authors from the unauthorized distribution of their books. While you might be fine with readers sharing your work widely and elect not to have this protection for your book, drm helps to ensure you get paid when people read and enjoy your work. Which means it’s generally a good program to opt into.

If you publish with kdp, your book will automatically be available worldwide through amazon because they own that platform. However, you can control the territory. If you only want distribution in certain countries, you can specify the territories in the setup process. This would be necessary if you have copyright regulations that only apply to certain countries.

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