Have you written a book and are now thinking about publishing it? Not sure what to do? Well, stick with me and I’ll help you through the ins and outs of self-publishing. It’s much easier than you might think.
First, it’s imperative to ensure your book is as polished as it can be, i.e. if you can afford to, hire an editor and get numerous beta readers to read it through before you hit ‘publish’. If you can’t afford an editor to start with, get even more beta readers (find them within Facebook author groups – just ask the question) to check it through and, if you can find them, ask a couple of already published authors to proofread for you. The more eyes that can check it, the better (especially experienced ones!). Once you believe it’s truly ready for the public, you’re ready for the next step. To self publish your book.
But in the meantime, while the editor and/or beta readers are doing their bit, start thinking about the cover. This is the first thing readers will see, so it’s crucial you give them something to remember. Whatever you do, unless you’re a good designer, avoid doing it yourself. I made this mistake when I published Raven, my first book, and it was hideous. At the time, I thought it was awesome. I was wrong. I changed it three times until it was awesome (and that’s only because a pro did it for me). I have, however, improved my design skills since then and actually produced two of my recent covers (as well as a cover for author pal, Eleanor Smythe). But generally, I use Ravven and Emma for my covers.
Once you’ve got the perfect cover and immaculate manuscript, it’s time to proceed with publishing your book. If you want it to be available in all online stores, then start with Smashwords. It’s so easy to upload it to this site, allowing it to be distributed practically everywhere from B&N to iBooks and beyond. However, it is crucial you follow the Smashwords style guide to ensure the book is perfect and will be approved quickly (for example, avoid having too many carriage returns, no indentations and so on).
If you want to upload your book to Amazon yourself, then make sure you un-tick the Amazon box under Channel Manager (Dashboard > Marketing & Distribution Tools > Channel Manager) in Smashwords and then head on over to KDP. This where you’ll find your Amazon bookshelf as well as where to go to check your sales info, etc. Under Bookshelf, you’ll see how easy it is to publish your book, just click on ‘Create new title’ and follow the instructions. It’s really very simple and doesn’t take too long – maybe 24 hours for a new author. Make sure you have your banking details to hand, because you’ll need those for the publishing process. And that’s it. Now you can start marketing your book… I think this is the hardest part of being an author. But I’ll save that for another post.
If you’re going through this process to self publish your book and get stuck or confused, just give me a shout and I’ll try and help you as best as I can. Good luck!
Oh, I almost forgot, if your book is published and you want to feature it on my Fiction Dreams blog, email me and we’ll sort something out. In the meantime, if you like what you see here, please sign up to receive my blog posts in your inbox, bloglovin and/or subscribe to my newsletter – all can be found on the right hand side of this blog!
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