Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 4: Writing, proofreading, designing and copywriting
• Part 2 of 4: Publish an e-book yourself
• Part 3 of 4: Publish yourself using Print on Demand
• Part 4 of 4: Self-publishing through service publishers or 50/50 publishers
• Tips
• Warnings

Publishing your own book is popular for many reasons. Landing a traditional publishing contract may not work for you - it's hard to get, and if you get one, it turns out you're giving up a lot of rights. By publishing it yourself, you can decide what the final product will look like, you can publish the book for a lower price, and you can decide for yourself how you want to approach traditional marketing and advertising. Whatever your reason, publishing your book yourself is a great way to make your book available to anyone interested. Read on for an exchange of views on the different ways you can publish a book yourself.

To step

Part 1 of 4: Writing, proofreading, designing and copywriting

1. Know that writing a book is hard work and time-consuming. You can write on your book four to twelve hours a day, for a few months to a year. If you're serious about writing, set aside a good portion of the day for brainstorming, writing, and correcting.
   • Many writers find that they are most productive and imaginative when they start writing as soon as they get up. Figure out what time of day works best for you, and then set aside that time for writing.
   • Don't forget to also read while you write. Reading is the panacea that feeds writers. If you haven't already, set aside part of the day to get serious about books and the ideas they give you.
2. Be prepared. Self-publishing requires a lot of initiative and perseverance. Remember that you are bound to encounter frustration along the way. Your passion to show the book to the public will pull you through. That aside, self-publishing can be an exciting and cost-effective adventure.
3. Explore your options. Decide whether self-publishing is the right choice for you. Talk to a few publishers and compare the costs with the revenues. List the reasons why you want to self-publish your book, and estimate how much it will cost; cover design, corrections and styling can all be very expensive. Determine if the reason you want to self-publish your book is strong enough to offset the cost. And, if that is the case, get started!
   • A breakdown of the estimated cost of self-publishing might look like this:
     • Design: € 0 (do it yourself) - € 150 and more, although you shouldn't spend too much money on this.
     • Cover design: € 0 (do it yourself) - € 1,000. Know that if you choose an ebook design company, they will likely only use stock photos.
     • Text editing: € 0 (do it yourself) - € 3,000 for "coaching" (significant) correction. Many beginning publishers expect to spend about $ 500 on a combination of proofreading and text editing.
4. Test your book. Make sure it is complete, corrected, and proofread thoroughly. For example, you can give a sample copy to some trusted friends who will give you valuable feedback, and discuss with you facts or motivations of the characters, or other details of your book.
   • If you are part of a writers group, or an active member of a forum, consider using that forum as a source of free (or relatively free) advice. In forums you will often find very engaged fans who find great satisfaction in helping others on their way, and for whom testing and proofreading represents a tremendous source of pride.
   • Testing often requires several rounds until all mistakes, design flaws and style flaws have been eliminated. Especially if you count on people who offer their services for free, you may have to read it two or three times before the book passes the test. And even then, you still shouldn't expect it to be flawless.
5. Hire a text editor. Hire a good one who will give you the best feedback and improve your work in proportion to how much it costs. Make a decision about whether to use a writing coach need, or one text editor. In addition to the boring debugging, writing coaching changes large parts of the book, introduces new themes and better integrates characters. Text editing is mainly about removing monotonous mistakes; it is more about playing with what is already there than creating something completely new.
6. Create a catchy title. If you haven't already, create a title that draws people into your story. The title of your book can convince people to buy your book - or not. For example, "The controlled intake of bacteria-injected by-products from milk and excretion from bees" doesn't sound nearly as appealing as "The delicious enjoyment of gorgonzola and honey."
7. Have a designer design your cover professionally. If you are not an artist yourself, hire a professional designer. They are fast and will make your book visually appealing.
   • This is especially important if your book will be on a shelf in a bookstore. Keep in mind that you will not only have to pay for the design of the front, but also for the back and the back, which will cost extra. But if you're going to go through all of this, it makes sense to have the best presentation you can get.
8. Add copyright notice. While registering your work with the copyright office is the safest and best way, you can also claim copyright by explicitly mentioning it in a clearly visible place. Most self-publishing sites will offer the copyright notice. The mention of © 2012, Ima Nauther, all rights reserved on the colophon or back cover to indicate your work if your property is already sufficient, for example. Read it on the government website.
9. Request an ISBN number. An ISBN number is a 13-digit number that is used to easily identify and find your book. Many self-publishing sites will request one for you, but if you want to do it all yourself, you'll also need to request an ISBN number yourself. You need this so that it can be included in the range of Centraal Boekhuis, where bookstores order the latest books for resale.
   • You can buy an ISBN directly from ISBN.
   • For each form in which the book will be available, you must have a separate ISBN: .prc (kindle), .epub (Kobo and others), etc.
10. Find a printing company. Shop around and request quotes. Prices will vary based on paper quality, binding method and colors. As you have more copies printed, the price per book will go down. Consider ordering between 500 and 2000 copies.

Part 2 of 4: Publish an e-book yourself

1. Know the benefits of publishing through a website. The benefits of publishing through a website include:
   • Few expenses; the costs you spend on writing and editing the book are the same costs that you spend on publishing. Creating an e-book doesn't cost much extra.
   • If you have a hit, then you really have a hit. Ebook publishers such as Kindle Direct Publishing let the author keep 70% of the total revenue of the book, which means that if your book is a success and your price is competitive, you could be in for a lucky break.
   • You keep all rights. You do not have to surrender your rights to a publisher who may not be serving your interests.
2. Also know the disadvantages of publishing via a website. The drawbacks include:
   • You will have to take care of all marketing and advertising yourself. Usually the publisher will not do the marketing or advertising for you.
   • Competitive pricing. An ebook can sometimes cost as little as a few dollars, which means you have to sell a lot of it to make spending profitable in the long run.
3. Publish online. Online publishers such as Smashwords, Kindle Direct Publishing, PubIt (Barnes & Noble), or Kobo's Writing Life allow you to publish your own book as an e-book for free.
4. Create an account for the program. You need this to upload your book and manage all the details involved. Many of these programs create formatting from well-known word processing programs, otherwise you can hire someone to design the document for you.
5. When your book is ready, you can upload it. When you've completed the list of categories on the website, choose to finish publishing and your book is printed! Now you are officially a published author!

Part 3 of 4: Publish yourself using Print on Demand

1. Understand what Print on Demand (POD) is. POD is when you release an electronic copy of your book and have a salesperson print that book for you. The sellers usually try to distribute your book to other resellers (such as Barnes & Noble), but often they only offer the book online.
2. Know the benefits of publishing using POD. The benefits of this include:
   • Having a hard copy of the book, which may be of value as a marketing tool.
   • Leave the physical printing to a salesperson, who takes care of all production.
   • Having a resource that will distribute your book, possibly even to major sales channels worldwide.
3. Know the downsides of spending through POD. The disadvantages of this include:
   • Spending through POD costs more money. You may end up with a hard copy of your book, but your production costs will be sky-high compared to e-books.
   • You will have to design the book to the specifications of the seller, which are sometimes odd. Each seller will have a list of specifications that your book must meet before the book is released.
   • Less marketing and distribution than you might think. Sellers can help market and distribute your product, but not as much as you might think. Often times, POD sellers simply put the book online for sale, and you are responsible for any significant marketing and distribution.
4. Choose a POD seller. There is a wide selection of POD sellers available for struggling writers who want a hard copy of their book but have very little cash available. Some services are: Lulu, Lightning Source or Createspace.
5. Make the design according to the specifications provided by the POD seller. The design can vary from site to site, so be prepared for a few potentially confusing clues. Once you've designed the book and handed it over to the seller, they'll have to take care of the rest of the process.

Part 4 of 4: Self-publishing through service publishers or 50/50 publishers

1. Understand vanity presses (service publishers). Vanity press is a negative term for smaller publishing houses where the author has to pay to get his or her work published. Traditional publishing houses have to recoup their money by selling copies of the books; vanity presses earn their money back with the rates that the author has to pay himself. Service publishers are much less selective than traditional publishers and therefore confer much less prestige.
2. Serious authors should avoid service publishers. Only if the author has an overwhelming need to publish his book, and cannot use any other method, should this be considered. Service publishers market themselves as traditional or subsidized publishers, but they charge high rates and do little or nothing about marketing or distribution. They generally do not discriminate and accept whatever is presented to them.
   • The only benefit of using a service publisher is that you will see a printed copy of your book. But POD gives you the same result, which is why serious authors avoid vanity presses or service publishers like the plague.
3. Understand what 50/50 publishers are. 50/50 publishers qualify as quality publishers, but they share the financial risk with the author. They are less selective than traditional publishers, but work in a similar way, in that they regularly reject manuscripts. They let the author help pay for the binding and publishing; the advantage is that they contribute to marketing and distribution, and your book will be published under their name. Authors have limited control over design and the like, but they do receive a share of the proceeds.

Tips

• Research shows that book buyers look at three things: the front, the back and the table of contents. Spend money to make these three parts stand out. If necessary, hire a graphic designer and think of it as the "kitchen and bathroom" parts of your book. Money you spend on these parts will give nice profit shares.
• Send free copies to anyone who may be interested in your genre or topic, and ask them to write a review on amazon.com, hebban.com, or other book selling sites. Books that don't have reviews on amazon.com have very, very low sales. Since potential buyers at amazon.com can't browse your book, they'll be counting on reviews from others.
• Publicity really is key. There are many wonderful books in the world that have sold no more than 351 copies because they have not been properly promoted. On the other hand, there are also a lot of horrible, poorly written books that have sold around 43,000 copies because of their stoneware promotion.
• Request a proof of your book before it is printed. If the result is not to your liking, you can still make changes before spending a lot of money on 1000 mediocre copies.
• Market your book through press releases, articles, blogs, websites and other ways you think about. Marketing is the main activity that will get people to know and buy your book.
• Join groups of self-publishing writers, or independent writers online. There are many such groups, but you can get help and advice on everything from cover design to marketing.
• Post your books on Amazon.com. Give yourself plenty of time to write the "Editor's Comment". Make sure it is neat, grammatically flawless and well written. This is what potential buyers will use to make a decision about buying your book.
• Add a great description to your book. That way it will attract more customers. Use strong descriptions to get their attention.
• Make sure your book has been thoroughly proofread. You don't want your book to get bad reviews because of typos and / or a bad layout. It is well worth the money to hire a professional text editor to read your book. You don't want people know that your book is a book published by yourself.
• Create a tagline like "Rosemary Thornton, author, The houses that Sears built"Such a slogan generates free publicity in your target market!
• Do not order too many printed copies of your book, especially when it can be easily avoided and / or when it is uncertain how much demand there will be. Too much extra inventory means that you have paid too much and it is unlikely that you will make any more money from it. E-books are much cheaper, don't require printing and are the largest growing market.
• Self-publishing is the future. Authors who self-publish are more successful than ever. Internet marketing, e-book publishing, and social networking sites have allowed self-publishing authors to get their books into view of potential readers and book buyers. The playing field has become more equal. When you self-publish, you have the control and success of your books in your own hands.
• Create a website and link it to the Amazon book site. Sell ​​your books through your own site.

Warnings

• Keep in mind that publishing through a publisher such as Scholastic, Dutton or Penguin has many perks, such as text editors and publicity agents that can help you improve both your book and your sales. While it can take a lot of work to land a book contract, don't write it off just because you don't feel like partnering with collective entities.
• Search Google to see if other books have already been published with the same or similar titles as those you want to use for your book. Book titles cannot by themselves be protected by copyright, although the trademark can be registered, such as "Chicken Soup for the Soul," or the "For Dummies" book series. If the title of your first choice is causing confusion or has been overused, consider changing it to an eye-catching and memorable title.
• For best results, make the topic (or the category it falls under) part of the title or subtitle so that even if readers don't know the title or author, readers can easily find it by topic in catalogs and databases. Even choosing a subtitle like "a novel about ancient Greece" will help interested readers discover your book. It also helps bookstores determine where to place it.