Hey guys!
I know it’s been a while (okay, make that a super long while) but I’m back and with some exciting news I’M PUBLISHED! And while I am very happy there were some things that I did not expect when it came to publishing, so I’ve decided to do a kind of step by step of the whole process. This is something I wish I had when I was making my decision, so I hope it helps! But before I get down to it. I wanted to thank all of the people who have supported me with this whole thing.
From all the encouraging words and telling me to never give up, to the fabulous ideas (some of which even made it into my book. ) But a big thank you goes to the people who have taken the chance and bought my book you don’t know how much all of your support means to me so thank you! Okay, enough with the mushy stuff and on to more serious topics.
The Real Cost Of Self-Publishing
The first thing I’m going to do is give a warning especially to those who are about to publish the first time or have finished their manuscripts are doing research on self-publishing. DO NOT EXPECT INSTANT SUCCESS OVERNIGHT!!! There, I wrote it with all capital letters and in bold so you can’t miss it. Now, with my warning in mind, I will tell you I didn’t heed my own warning. In fact, when I read similar statements I thought to myself what do they know my book will be better.
But no matter how well written your book is there’s one thing that all these successful self-published authors fail to mention. Without advertising and promotion, your book won’t sell. Now when I say that I don’t mean to say that your writings not good enough, heck for all I know your book could do very well with no promotion at all! If that’s the case then I am very happy for you! I’m just saying that those kind of results are not typical especially in the Young Adult genre. Trust me even if you manage to get your book into every available space, offer it in every format possible it won’t do any good if nobody knows its out there.
I know at this point some of you may be getting overwhelmed thinking you’ve gotten in over your head. The first thing you need to do if this is happening, take a big deep breath let it out and relax. Now that you’ve done that I can tell you this feeling is perfectly normal, every writer no matter whom you talk to will say they’ve experienced this feeling at least once if not many times in their career. Between you and me I think it’s some sort of secret rule in the writer’s handbook that you have to feel this way at least once, just know that you’re in good company. Now I’ll let you in on another secret about self-publishing.
No matter what people tell you self-publishing does cost money and there are things you need to consider and think about if you go this route. While self-publishing isn’t cheap there are ways to publish without going broke. (Some of which I will mention later on) But mostly it all depends on your price range and what you’re willing to spend. It can range from a couple hundred dollars to thousands. I myself managed to produce my novel for fairly cheap, below is a list of things you might want to think about once you’re finished with your novel.
Finding Beta readers: What is a beta reader you ask? A beta reader is someone who reads your work and critiques it. (e.g. looks for plot holes, sentence flow and making sure things make sense all-around.) When picking a beta reader I would suggest staying away from friends and family because most of the time your friends and family are biased wanting to see you succeed afraid to hurt your feelings therefore not being able to give a very truthful opinion no matter how much it hurts. It would be in your best interest to find someone who doesn’t know you. Goodreads has a special forum dedicated to beta readers.
Hiring an editor: This is one of the places where the money factor comes in to play. There are editors with all different price ranges. Most editors you find charge per word or per page and this could cost you hundreds even thousands of dollars. If you’re working with a smaller budget like I was there are editors that will charge on the lower end of the price range. But for the most part, editing is going to cost you a couple of hundred dollars.
Formatting: you’ve had your book looked over, made the necessary changes and had it polished. Now comes the fun part! If you’re like me and know exactly how you want your book to look then there are a couple of software options that will help you create a beautiful print and e-book.
Vellum (for Mac users only): now this is a great program that I’ve used myself it makes formatting your book easy and painless in one hour or less! There are so many things you could do with this software! (trust me I know I’ve spent hours playing around with it) e.g. generate specific files for all the book retailers: Barnes& Noble, Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Google play and Createspace. It also creates Drop caps, automatic table of contents copyright page, dedication page, acknowledgments page, and other features that you would find in a professionally published book. One last feature that I want to mention the real-time previewer this allows you to look at your manuscript on the different digital devices and in print after you’ve played around with the formatting. It also allows you to see the changes you make and how the final product will look before you generate the file. The only downside to this program is the fact that is only available for Mac users. The price point is a little high I will admit but worth the one-time investment.
(unlimited ebook only license: $150) Recommended* (unlimited ebook+ print book license: $250)
Scrivener (for Mac and PC users): I’ve also used this program and it has some of the same features as Vellum. while its not quite as easy to use once you get the hang of it you’ll have no problem it can also generate files not as many as vellum but it has the ability to generate Amazon azw files word Docxe pubs and print (Never did figure out that one but I’m sure there’s a YouTube instructional video.) There are some different features in Scrivener for Mac. Like Vellum there is a one-time license purchase fee of $45 but they also have a 30-day free trial that way you get to try before you buy.
Cover design: There is a way to do this is completely free. There are also websites that offer premade cover templates that just have you insert your name and title of your book and There’s also Cover designers but They are usually pretty expensive the couple hundred dollars range but they will give you exactly what you want most of the time. I created my own cover and didn’t spend a single dime on the design. I found the photos I wanted and then used the website canva to generate a blank Kindle Cover template where I inserted my photo. To get the print cover I used the create paperback option on KDP and skipped directly to the cover creator which created a front, back, and spine all in one file. After created I uploaded the file to the Createspace cover creator where it was adjusted and approved. Now like with anything whenever you find a photo you like make sure it’s either royalty-free are you get permission from the photographer this will save you a lot of grief and potential legal trouble. The royalty-free photos are usually offered through a service like Shutterstock where you have to pay a monthly fee usually $10-$15 but you get unlimited photo access and downloads.
TIP: make sure you adjust the photos DPI to 300 that’s what’s excepted By pretty much every book distribution site.
Now that you pretty much have your manuscript formatted and you cover put together you are ready to upload it to your choice distribution sites. Once that is finished you could focus on advertising. For Goodreads, Amazon, and Facebook they each have a minimum price of $100 to advertise but you could expand your budget if you choose. Know if you choose to enroll your book in the Kindle Unlimited program that is the only place your e-book can be sold now the print versions can be sold Createspace, Barnes& Noble and Smashwords. But the content of your e-book belongs to Amazon exclusively. You do have the option to unenroll at any time. If you don’t enroll in Kindle unlimited Draft2Digital is the way to go when it comes to simple e-distribution they will be able to get into stores like Barnes & Noble iBooks Kobo and even Amazon.
Now that I’ve pretty much told you the ins and outs of self-publishing you can decide for yourself whether this is the route for you.
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Chandra Rooney books 