Beginner’s Guide to Self Publishing Your First Book

Beginner’s Guide to Self Publishing Your First Book.

In a world where professional software programs and information is readily available, there’s no better time than now to discover self publishing. Today I’m going to share with you what you need to know about self publishing your first book from my own experience as a self published author. As an author and or an illustrator, you may think that getting your book project on a store shelf or in the hands of a customer is a daunting task. I’m not going to sugar coat it; self publishing is a lot of work. I’ve gone through this process twice now and plan to self publish my work for the rest of my life. The pride and accomplishment of holding the first bound copy of your book is like none other and I want that for you! In this article, I’m going to break down in a simplistic way the main things you need to know about self publishing, what it is, steps you need to take, options you need to consider and the realities of the self publishing world. Grab your notebook and pen and let’s get started on how to self publish your first book.

What is Self Publishing?

Self publishing is simply independently publishing one’s own work, having full control over how it is printed, marketed, and sold. In decades past, it was more common for a book to be traditionally published. If you pay attention to any copyright pages on the back or inside covers of books on shelves, you’ll notice names like Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster. These are known as the Big 5. There are also thousands of smaller printing presses.

Traditional vs. Self Publishing

Traditional publishing is actually quite a bit harder and in my opinion a lot more is taken into consideration outside of your book. A traditional book press is going to be set up in several different ways. Sometimes you will be paid an advance. A monetary payment prior to your book being written. This is more common with successful book series. You may also have an agreement set up to be paid royalties, where the publisher takes a large cut and you take a cut of the profits. A traditional publisher will work with in-house designers on formatting and cover design and will manage the inventory, printing, and retail partners. If you do happen to be picked up by a traditional publisher you can count on not having to put much of your investment into the book. Be careful, you may be reached out by a publishing company that offers to publish your book if you pay them X amount of dollars….. Don’t do that. Any reputable traditional publisher won’t approach you like that.

Working with a traditional publisher is not something that is a guaranteed option for every author. An agent will review the book, but will also take into consideration your experience as a writer, your social media following, audience, and your own popularity or previous works. This can be a disheartening path for the beginner author as you may have an awesome book, but you may not have the whole package.

Let’s get to Self Publishing your first book….

Self publishing is 100% in your control. What you need to know about self publishing is that from the beginning you will be fully responsible and receptive to all the profits and all the expenses, risks and responsibilities of making your book. In this scenario you will be the one to register your book with an ISBN number, format and design, write, illustrate, market and house your inventory. Of course most of this can be hired out depending on your budget.

Seems scary right? I thought the same in the beginning, but if you plan it right and have an actionable game plan on how to market and sell your book, self publishing is a fantastic option.

Pros and Cons to Self Publishing

Let’s start off with some positivity and talk about the pros of self publishing.
Let’s circle back to control. When I was publishing my first book I knew I wanted to have full control of the quality of the binding and paper. I am an illustrator primarily, so I wanted to make sure that my paintings were going to pop on the page. By self publishing I was able to get tons of samples from various printers to really touch and feel the paper that my book would be printed on.

Second, I thought ahead and knew that I wanted to be able to sell my book how and where I wanted it. It was important to me to be able to sell it on my own website, Etsy, at Farmer’s markets and sell it wholesale to other businesses. To do this I knew I needed to have the reins of all the finances and inventory. Self publishing allows the author to choose how many books per order and the price per unit based on the company and materials you choose.

Inventory was also a huge decision factor. Within the self publishing industry you have two different printing options: offset printing and Print on Demand publishing. We will get into vanity or POD publishing a little further down. Offset printing is what I’m talking about where you have the options to choose how and where your book is printed. You may choose to have gold foil or embossing, a board book, thick or thin paper, hardcover or paperback???
Having creative control of how the book was printed was incredibly important to me. Offset printing allows you to hold all your inventory. This can be a little scary when 2,000 books get delivered on your doorstep, so planning is crucial. By holding your own inventory you can also package and gift wrap however you want that best represents your brand.

Now let’s touch base on some cons, because with every up there is a down…..

To piggyback on inventory….. You have to store it yourself. This is definitely a half glass full or empty situation, because even though it’s super nice to have books on hand and have control over quality and packaging, it can sometimes not be feasible to store that many books. On top of that, if you don’t order a large quantity you may not be able to get the price per unit as low as you need it to be to make a profit.

This is where a lot of new authors go the Vanity publishing route. Ever heard of Print on Demand (POD)? This is where I first started my research and the option you will see most often in the beginning. When a company says that they will let you upload my book for free, and that they will print your books and ship to the customer themselves, and market your book on dozens of major retailers, It’s easy to be like yes please!

Common Vanity publishers are KDP (Amazon), Ingram Spark, Lulu, Book Baby, and so many more.

I quickly discovered that the POD quality just wasn’t what I was looking for and didn’t check off any of the criteria I had set for myself and my book. Books are printed on very thin paper, and colors don’t always come through correctly. On top of that there is a high chance of misprints and formatting errors, simply because the quality control isn’t there .

An easy pro to POD publishing is how hands off the process is. This can be an incredibly attractive trait to the new author. Simply due to the fact that it costs nearly nothing to publish, they don’t have to hold any inventory, they aren’t responsible for shipping, customer care, returns ect.

Authors who have written their book, had it illustrated and formatted can submit and sit back and collect their commissions.

Again this can be a wonderful choice to the author who is looking for that hands off experience. However, keep in mind that because you aren’t responsible for any of the costs of printing, shipping and service your cut is roughly around 10-20%.

Things to consider before starting a book

So you are sold on wanting to pursue self publishing. Where do you start?

This is a topic that can go on and on so I’ll stick to the very basics.

One…. Decide who your target audience is. Is it for a baby, toddler, pre teen, adult? Is it fiction, non fiction? What do you hope your audience to gain from reading your book?

Two…. Write an age appropriate story line based on your target audience.

Three…. Completely have your story nailed down and edited prior to starting any illustrations.

Four…. Illustrate yourself or hire an illustrator. It’s important to wait on this step until your book is completely revised.

Five….. Pick how you want to publish your book and which company you are publishing through as each place has different requirements for uploading raw files.

Six…. Format your book using several different software programs. My favorite Adobe InDesign. Formatting is your book is a raw digital form with ink bleeds and margins. Again I could go on forever on this topic.

Seven…. Get an ISBN number to register your book. If publishing in the USA the only place to legitimately buy an ISBN number is on Bowker www.myidentifiers.com . You can purchase a single ISBN number which can cost you upwards of $100 plus dollars or you can buy a pack of ten for a little over $200. Keep in mind that a unique ISBN number is required for each version of your book. For example if you want your book to be available as a hard cover and a soft cover you would need two ISBNs. You will find that if you upload to KDP (Amazon) they can provide you an ISBN number for free, however, keep in mind that Amazon will be listed as the publisher of your book and you will have to completely start over if you choose to re-publish it elsewhere.

Eight…. Decide how you are going to do inventory management. If you chose the off set printing option you will want to store your books in a safe, dry, cool place to avoid warping and damage as well as shipping materials and packaging.https://www.myidentifiers.com

Nine…. Have a plan for marketing and set a budget. If you haven’t already got on the bandwagon of social media. Create an instagram, Pinternet, TikTok and share bits and pieces of your book, your journey, how you created it….. Think of ways to connect with your audience. I also encourage you to start an author’s page on Facebook or even your own website. At some point you can choose to do paid advertising to get an even bigger reach.

If you have a story book, try to book events in schools, read alongs in libraries or hospitals.
In the summer, sign up for farmer’s markets and get yourself and your books in front of your customers.

Ten…. Set up business accounts. Hopefully at some point in your author journey your book will sell many copies and be successful. Once you start making a certain amount of income you will definitely want to consider this a business rather than a hobby. Get a business license, start a business bank account, and keep track of all your expenses and profits for easy tax season.

Conclusion

Today we went over the basics of how to get started in self publishing, the different ways to self publish and the steps needed to get from A – Z in your author journey.I get asked all the time how to even start thinking about self publishing your first book and , friends, I hope this little tidbit of information was helpful and that it gets the ball rolling for a bright and beautiful career. I wish you all the best!