Today I will provide you with lots of important self-publishing resources. I will also outline the processes you have to go through as a self-published author, and explain how being organised may make your writing life a lot easier.
Stuff to learn
As an author, if you intend to make money instead of having writing as your hobby, you often have to learn stuff like website set-up and maintenance, effective blogging, search engine optimisation, setting up and running a newsletter, and social media marketing.
Then you have to prepare your book for self-publishing (editing, formatting, cover design, etc.) and know how to go about this.
Need more help and information with these things? Then read on.
Stuff to organise
When your novel is finished, it’s in your best interests to organise an editor and proofreader for your work and to purchase an ISBN.
An ISBN is your book’s identification number and allows distributors, online retailers, wholesalers, and libraries to track purchases and sales.
You also have to organise a book cover and get the imprint (copyright) page done.
You should prepare an author biography (IngramSpark and KDP Amazon require this) and get the book description done for the back cover (book blurb).
You will need to get the book formatted (you can also learn to format a book yourself if you want to save money).
You will have to decide on the appropriate categories and keywords for your book. This is required by IngramSpark and KDP Amazon and helps your book to be discovered by the public.
Then you have to upload your writing and cover design to the publishing companies, such as IngramSpark and Amazon (they also provide free online customer service if you have any questions or difficulties with this).
Resources
I learned a lot about writing when I was doing my first novel. You can check out the stuff I’ve learned about writing through my blog here.
Now onto the publishing side of things.
You can source editors, proofreaders, book cover designers and book formatters through websites such as upwork.com and fiverr.com.
In Australia, you can purchase an ISBN through Thorpe-Bowker. For further information, you can check them out here. Not in Australia? Just google where you can purchase an ISBN in your country.
You can set your book up for print on demand with IngramSpark. They have also got some free online self-publishing courses, as well as many other resources – you can check them out by clicking here and just take a general look around their website and see what they offer. They also provide free customer service for any enquiries.
In Australia only and at time of writing, IngramSpark sees self-publishers as a business, so you will need to provide them with an ABN number if you intend to publish your book through them. An ABN number identifies you with the government for taxation purposes. To apply for an ABN and to read more about it click here.
KDP Amazon publishes the electronic version of your book and also helps you to promote it. You can read more about that here. They also provide free customer service for any enquiries.
At time of writing, Kindlepreneur.com is a website that has great advice for writers. You can check out their blog here for great tips on choosing the right categories and keywords.
In Australia only and at time of writing, you must deposit a copy of your book to the National Library of Australia within thirty days after it is published. Check out their website here for further information.
You should have some basic book marketing knowledge and ideas to try out after your novel is published. Check out some fantastic book marketing ideas through a blog by The BookBub Partners here.
A few extra marketing tips
Here are a few extra marketing tips for you: having a newsletter is a good marketing tool. You can ask people to join your newsletter at the start of your book (on the copyright page) and also at the end of your book. Make sure you give great incentives to join your newsletter.
Book reviews help to increase book sales, so make sure at the end of your book you also ask your readers to give you a book review if they have enjoyed reading your book.
How being organised with learning helps you
There is a lot to learn in self-publishing! How do you learn and/or do what you have to do and still write your novel without going crazy?
My advice to beginners would be this: learn the basics of all the technical stuff you need to know as you’re writing, instead of after you’ve published your book.
If you try to do it all after, you will quickly become overwhelmed, and will also quickly discover just how time-consuming trying to learn everything can be.
It’s much easier and more comfortable to digest knowledge in regular small chunks over a long period of time rather than trying to cram it all in at the last minute and potentially give yourself a heart attack!
Building a social media and newsletter following also takes time, so it’s best to start that as early as possible in your writing journey.
Different options
I would also say that if you’re a complete beginner and have no clue, save yourself a lot of time, heartache, and headache and do courses in what you need to know as you’re writing your novel.
Another option is to outsource and pay for services, for example, pay someone to set up your website, etc. for you.
There is another option you may like to try too, if you’re a complete beginner and don’t fancy doing/learning a lot of things as you’re writing your book: put your book on pre-order.
A pre-order means that your book is uploaded and in the publisher’s system, but not available yet, but can be ordered (and paid for). When it is ordered, it will be sent to the customer after the publication/release date.
At time of writing, you can put your book on pre-order with the popular publishers IngramSpark and Amazon for up to twelve months before publication.
So if you’re a complete beginner and the type that likes to organise/do/learn stuff after you’ve finished your book, you can consider this option to give you some extra time (so by the the time the book is published, you have more know-how).
When you finally reach the stage of hitting the publish button, the last thing you want to be doing is desperately trying to learn lots of technical stuff all at once.
That’s time-consuming!
All you should be consumed with at that point is executing your book marketing plans, not wasting time figuring out all the technical things that need to be done.
Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.
– Stephen King
Even if you pay someone to do stuff for you, it still helps to be organised
I hired a company to help me self-publish.
During the process, I soon learned that I didn’t get out of work! I had to put in a lot of effort to co-create my book with them, but it was a good learning experience.
I had to tell them how I wanted the book’s interior to look and what ideas I had for the front cover. I also had to submit my book blurb (book description), author biography, and imprint (copyright) page details to them.
I had to constantly check things over with them and give them feedback.
Well, I wasn’t the most organised of customers! They presented me with my book transcript to check over, and I discovered (despite getting the book edited twice and reading over it many times) that I’d made forty punctuation errors that needed to be fixed.
And I kept on changing my mind about what to put in the book blurb (book description on the back cover), author bio, and imprint (copyright) pages – all of which wasted my time and theirs.
So my advice is this: get everything ready, as much as you possibly can, before dealing with a self-publishing company.
Have a solid vision for what you want the book’s interior to look like by visiting a bookstore and checking out different types of book formatting (including stuff like page headers, footers, fonts, font size, and spacing).
Settle on a book blurb and an author bio for yourself that you like. Get the imprint page done. Do some research and get ideas for what you’d like your front cover to look like.
And obviously, unlike me, get your book thoroughly polished and edited and ready to go!
Being organised saves a lot of time and headaches further on.
Ideally, by the time you hit the publish button, you should already have your author website, blog, newsletter, and social media accounts set up and running so you can start executing your book marketing ideas.
That’s all for today! Hit the ground running, instead of landing flat on your face!
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