Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Self Publishing

I am interested in self publishing -- not for everything, but for work that I don't think I can sell to a publisher and want to make available. So anything anyone can tell me about the process will be useful.

The poetry group I belong to just self-published a collection. It has gotten its first review, which is a rave, except the reviewer really did not like the cover. I found the image for the cover, so am in part responsible. The reviewer said the type face and the photo quality made the book look amateurish. I guess this is an argument for a designer.

I am not too upset, because the reviewer liked everything else and mentioned me by name.

2 comments:

Zoe Dawson said...

I just uploaded my first book in a series to Amazon (http://amzn.to/UDAuAO) if you want to check it out. The first step is lining up your professionals to help you get the book ready for launch day. Unless you're comfortable with doing your own editing, you'll need a copyeditor and if you feel the need a developomental editor for the story part of the book. Then if you don't want to fuss with the formatting, there are many that can help you with that as well. You'll need a mobi file for Amazon and an epub file for Smashwords, Kobo, and B&N. Then just open accounts with your choice of provider. I decided to go with Amazon, B&N, Kobo and Smashwords and have accounts with all four. I hope this was helpful for you. If you have specific questions, I can try to answer them from a noobie viewpoint. Best of luck with the process!

Arran said...

I looked at self publishing when i started actually writing some of the book ive had sat on the drawing board for 5 years. Amazon seem quite easy to get on with but i did discover that you may be better off buying your own isbn numbers as opposed to letting amazon do that for you. Something to do with rights and imprints. Another author was complaining and recommended this but i cant remember who now, sorry. Also if you block buy the isbn's there cheaper and you can use them to publish real world books too. I looked into this but it's not something i can look at until i have my final word count, which going by my work rate should be sometime in 2047. Good luck and if you find reliable cheap editors or cover illustrators please share your discoveries.