Inside Guide to Self Publishing

Thinking about self publishing? Here is an exclusive look as one author goes through the self publishing process.


My Self Publishing Walk-Through


Step 1. Make Sure Self Publishing is Right For You- I did not choose self publishing lightly. I researched options from traditional to vanity publishing with self publishing being in the middle. Being now that I recently gave birth to twins, and have one older child as well I really do not have time to research publishing houses, and writing agents. Research you say? Yes research. You do not just pick a agent, or publishing house then say take a look at my book please. You have review each agent, each publishing house to make sure your genre of book will fit them. That at least heightens your chance of acceptance a little better. Another reason why self publishing seems to be right for me is that my book is different. It falls in the paranormal romance genre but the PG-13 version if you will. Last reason is why not self publish? Others have done it. Why not take the chance on myself. To tell the truth I am completely terrified to do this.

Step 2. Choose the Right Self Publisher for you- Self publishing is a grow trend so there some so called self publishing sites that are actually vanity publishing company's claiming to be self publishing. Self publishing should let you do all the work yourself, but then offer you professional help as a cost if you so choose. Not pay me such and such amount and I will publish your book that is vanity publishing. Some good ones are Lulu.com and Create-a-space. I started to on Lulu but I just did not like the feel of the site. I then started to look into Create-a-space and I liked their process much better. 

Step 3. Edit Your Book or Hire Someone-  I had let my book sit for awhile as I contemplated self publishing vs traditional publishing.When I decided self publishing I knew I must edit myself unless I had the Benjamin$ to hire an editing service. If you do self edit do not just edit once, but twice, even 3 times. Let your book set for couple days between edits though so you get a fresh eyes on it every time. And let me tell you, you will probably find a mistake every time you look at it. Just keep on editing it till you find nothing left. You can then estimate you book is 99% error free.

Step 4. Start Marketing!- As of right now I have the interior of the book formatted for publishing. I next need to make a cover. I have paused right now to start marketing even though my book is not ready for sale yet. My book already has a website and follower so I updated my site and my follower.  I Twittered about it, Linkedin about it, made a book trailer. I even created a Facebook page for it!

Step 5. Well that is yet to come as I continue on my self publishing journey. Write On!