My self-publishing journey: an update

I've been sitting in Starbucks since about 1:30 pm putting together the manuscript for "She Wasn't Allowed to Giggle." Altogether, it's been a productive afternoon. I am about a third of the way finished assembling the manuscript. I have also put together a list of what I have left to do for the book and how much it's going to cost. It looks a little like this:

Because I have already arranged it, my first priority is the book cover, which will cost me roughly $100, give or take.

After putting together the manuscript I need to get it edited professionally. This will coast me about $450. Because it's a poetry book, I have been told that it will likely only need a light edit which will cost about $3.99/page.

Following that will come typesetting and eBook formatting, which together will cost roughly $250.

That's just the technical stuff and doesn't include actually printing the book, which might have to wait. I plan on selling "She Wasn't Allowed to Giggle" as an eBook first and I will invest what money is made from that into getting print copies of the book done. Before printing, I estimate the cost of self-publishing this book to be around $770.

After printing, marketing will be the next cost to consider. Of course, much marketing can be done online through Facebook and Twitter and blogging. Next summer, though, I would like to travel across the country attending writer festivals and getting some word-of-mouth marketing going on for both "She Wasn't Allowed to Giggle" and "Spellbound by Fire."

And I anticipate the release date for "She Wasn't Allowed to Giggle" to be around the end of October if everything goes well. That's coming up quickly but with some hard work and perseverance I am sure I can do it. I am savouring the challenge that self-publishing is posing for me. But I am hearing nothing but good things about the direction in which the world of self-publishing is going. Just today I had a friend on Facebook post this article about it: http://blogs.forbes.com/booked/2011/06/06/good-day-sunshine-for-writers/

I am finding the keys to this self-publishing endeavour are organization and determination. If you're not organized, you're going to be scattered and not get much done. Without determination, you won't have the ambition or initiative to make the book a success or to get as far as getting it published properly. I've been talking to a lot of other writers and a publisher or two about self-publishing and where people go wrong in the journey. I have gotten a lot of good advice, and just as importantly, I have gotten immense support from the writing community, for which I have to thank everyone for!

Now back to this manuscript…more coffee please??