Punkology and a Few Self-Publishing Notes

I did it! I wrote 30 original found poems from punk song lyrics of the mid-70s to 1980(ish). And I continued during that month to craft extra so that by the end I had enough for a small book. Punkology contains 50 poems sourced from bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Wire, Undertones, Boomtown Rats, Sham 69, Hazel O’Connor and more.

Whilst the paperback is only available on amazon. The ebook can be found both there or directly from my own store here (you will be sent a link to download via Bookfunnel).

This is a self-published effort so if anyone’s curious about what I used – I know people often worry about cost of this sort of thing – here you are:

I used Word to create the mss for both ebook and print pdf. Print: unlike other books, this did not have any typesetting requirements so it made sense to simply make sure styles were applied to the text and then the book was saved as a 5×8 pdf for print.Affinity Photo was used for the cover design. I kept it simple by using a black layer and applying a ‘grunge-textured’ paint brush across it in red. The two fonts were free use from DaFont (Sex Pistols for the title and Beat My Guest for the rest on the front).I converted the docx file to epub in Calibre (free ebook management conversion software). The epub was uploaded to Bookfunnel along with the pdf so purchasers can choose how they want it.The docx and pdf files were also uploaded to amazon for kindle and print respectively.

Yes, I pay a subscription for Bookfunnel, but the payhip site which hosts my store is free to setup and only takes a small percentage. I worked out that the percentage taken by paypal and payhip combined still gives more return than amazon.

I’ll probably work out easier/more efficient ways to do things on the sales side but I’m working at creating a space that is mine and not subject to the whims of other platforms (whether it be amazon, apple or whoever, who suddenly decide to delist your work, apple did that briefly to me and then the books suddenly reappeared again). I’ve not uploaded to B&N or Kobo as with some books as I now have payhip. Nor am I going Draft2Digital as that’s another expense.

Yes, there’s the whole marketing issue but that’s something else – as are paperbacks. This is all about my control of my own work should other platforms prove a pain. An ongoing process but I think a backup plan is necessary in these current climes. Note: this applies only to my self-published work and not that which is homed with traditional publishers/presses.