Book Review: How to Write, Format, Publish and Promote Your Book

How to Write, Format, Publish and Promote Your Book (Without Spending Any Money) by Derek Murphy

I wasn’t able to read this cover-to-cover like I wanted to. This guy is just so pessimistic. Yes, I understand that some authors get lost in the fantasy that they’re going to be the next Stephen King, but the reality is that the authors who think that are almost certainly NOT going to be the next Stephen King. I got tired of reading his condescending tone throughout the book that I need to believe his almighty knowledge of indie publishing simply because he’s worked with authors on book designs and plans to write fiction in the future. Guess what? If you’re reading this book you’re planning on writing a book in the future!

The saving grace for this book was the marketing tips, but again, take it with a grain of salt because what works for one author doesn’t necessarily work for another. The bits of advice from other indie authors was great (maybe because Derek Murphy was no longer writing?) because it showed the wide variety of ways people can be successful (whatever your idea of success is) in indie publishing.

I need to point out that I skipped the part on formatting. He discusses formatting in Word and I format in Scrivener and InDesign so that section was basically useless to me.

What I Found Most Helpful: This book was very pessimistic throughout. However, he does have valid tips on promotion at the end of the book. Also, he gives a step-by-step guide to formatting with Microsoft Word, if you choose to format with that program.