How to Self-Publish a Book, The N.E.W. Way (Part 4)

We’ve made it to the end of this never-ending list–woohoo!

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you might want to start with Part 1 of this blog post series. Or, you know, check out this guy. He’s the real expert.

Regardless, here’s the continuation of how I managed to self-publish three books.

Step 7 — The Book Description (or Blurb)

If you decided to print a paperback version of your story, you’ve probably already hit this step back in Step 6. Which is, of course, fine! These steps are by no means meant to go in order. It’s just the order I’m putting them in for the purposes of this series of blog posts. But you know, you do you.

So, what is the book description or blurb?

Lots of folks use the term ‘blurb’ to refer to single sentence endorsements from other authors that are included on the cover or the interior of a book. But some also use ‘blurb’ to refer to the book description–which is usually a two to three paragraph description of your story.

It’s not a mini-synopsis. It’s not a logline. It’s an enticing, short description of your story that’s meant to tease the reader and get them to read the first page of your book.

This is not an easy thing to do. At least, it is not easy for me to condense the story and plot of a 90,000 words novel into five hundred words or so.

Check out this article on Reedsy.com for some guidance.

Step 8 — Keywords and Other Stuff

Whether you self-publish your book on Amazon.com, Draft2Digital or any other platform, there’s stuff you need to assemble about your books–the meta-data.

Here’s what Amazon KDP requires for an eBook only:

Book TitleBook Subtitle (if any)Book Series Title (if this is the first in a series, you can skip this for now)Edition Number (if any)Author NameContributors (other authors who have contributed to the work, for example, like a co-author or the authors contributing to a short story anthology)Description (this is the book description described above)Categories (Genres)Keywords (likely search terms)

The categories and keywords can be important. I’m not savvy enough to offer advice on either, but pick the ones that seem pertinent to your book. For example, for my upcoming dragon fantasy book, I pick those Categories (or genres). Here’s what mine looks like:

For the keywords, think of words or phrases that describe your book that you think someone searching for your book might enter into a search engine. For example, if I’m a reader interested in an adventurous tale with dragons, and you just happened to have written a story with adventure and dragons, then enter those keywords or phrases. You only get seven, so choose wisely!

Step 9 — Assemble the Parts

So, what are the parts of your book? Easy peasy, at the bare minimum it is:

Your completed, edited and formatted manuscript. For Amazon it would be in KPF format, for Draft2Digital it would be in EPUB format, and for other platforms adhere to their guidelines!Your eBook cover formatted per your publisher’s guidelines. This file is usually in JPG or TIFF format.ISBN number (optional for an eBook).

That’s it! It sounds so simple, but there are tons of things that go into developing your story and its cover. But essentially, that’s why we see so many self-published books on the market. It really is that easy to self-publish.

Step 10 — Set your price!

Oh, my goodness. You made it. You’ve survived the gauntlet. It is time to set the price of your precious eBook, paperback, or hardback, and send it out to the wild.

For as many folks who self-publish, there are that many different strategies for pricing your eBook, paperback, or hardback. You could do tons of market research to try to figure out the best price for your book (and all its versions). Or you could check out what similar books are selling for and price your books accordingly.

Again, I’m not an expert, but remember, your price is not set in stone. You can change it any time. And you should! When determining an initial, base price for your book, keep in mind that you’ll want “room” to offer discounts and other price-drop promotions.

That’s it!

In ten relatively easy–no, don’t be silly, they are super hard–steps, anyone can self-publish a novel.

Until next time, enjoy the journey and feel free to share your self-publishing tips and tricks.