About to self publish a book I've worked on for five years....

[Matt]

Hey guys and girls, after writing and rewriting and rewriting I'm finally going to self publish my book. I just don't feel it fits into traditional publishing but also I like being in charge of things myself.

Anybody got any advice for me out there? I've worked really hard but I feel the work is just beginning....

[Martin]

I recommend Createspace. Publish both paper and kindle.

Use a professional editor for spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Make sure the cover is professional grade.

Don't rush to publish. Order proofs and have some people check it for issues including the above as well as formatting.

Good luck!!

[Matt]

thanks man! I plan to do all those things. Right now it's on the final proofread for the editor I hired, and then I'm gonna have the interior designed, and then have the cover made. I've fooled around with this before, but this time I'm doing it as pro as I can.

[Thomas]

You're right. This is just the beginning. The hard part is becoming known after you've published something. So here's some stuff to think about based on my experiences.

1) Do some research on Returnable vs Non-Returnable when picking your POD company.

There are pros and cons to "Returnable", but there are some bookstores that 99% of the time won't stock a book if it's not "Returnable" (such as Barnes & Noble). There are other bookstores that will work on a consignment basis with you, but that's hit and miss.

2) Putting your book in bookstores doesn't mean anything unless you start building a presence/following. I know, I've tried. The result of having my book placed (in prime locations) at bookstores with no following resulted in very little interest.

3) Make your online presence a secondary presence. Your first presence should be one in the community. Get together with other local authors. Do shows/conventions/panels/book fairs/anything public related to writing.

4) Become comfortable talking to people, if you aren't already. If you start doing shows, don't pre-plan your pitch. Be friendly. Greet people. Talk to people as if they're you're long time friend and find common ground to talk about things which interest both of you. If they stop to talk, you'll have opportunity to bring up the fact that you're an author and have a book and most times they'll want to hear a little about it (or at least be willing to take a bookmark and offer to look it up later).

5) Don't stop after publishing this book. Keep writing. Publish more.

[Matt]

hey thanks for typing this advice, Thomas. I really appreciate it!

I was thinking of worrying about books stores as a kind of second line of attack once I've gotten the book online. Once I've gotten it out there, I thought I could send mailers/brochures to indie and sci-fi related book stores about the book and see what sticks, if anything. Like you said, if no one knows about the book, who's gonna buy it?

I was thinking of doing community stuff here in phoenix and see what happens. There's actually a large community of writers and events I think to choose from through Meetup.com etc.


Anyway, thanks again for your time and advice!

[Thomas]

Glad to hear you have a large community of writers there. They're going to be a big asset. I've had some amazing things happen because of being connected and being friends with other authors.

I would recommend not doing mailers or brochures to stores. Much like getting out into the public to meet the public, you want to introduce yourself to bookstores in person if possible so they can at least meet the author. What you might do though is when you introduce yourself, have some bookmarks handy and ask if they'd be willing to have them out and available for people to take.

[E.J.]

Definitely establish a presence on Twitter, if you haven't already. I think it has been BY FAR the most effective social media platform for me in terms of meeting and interacting with other authors and readers, especially ones that are interested in the same genres.

I know if you end up using Createspace for paperbacks, you can select "Expanded Distribution" and that will allow bookstores and libraries to access and order your books to have in stock. Unfortunately there's no way to know when/if this happens (you don't get notified or anything), but there are some retailers like Barnes & Noble that get your books through ED and stock them on their website. I've found mine available from other places too like Powell's of Oregon and even college bookstores. It's always kind of fun to discover them in new places :)

I've reached out to my county library to see if they'd put some copies into circulation, and they were more than happy to. If you had any promotional items like posters or flyers to go along with them, that would certainly help. I know a lot of libraries have a "local authors" section. I also contacted the book trader in town (which is unfortunately our last "real" bookstore) and asked them if they'd like to stock my books, and they were also more than happy to. They've got a pretty sizable local authors section, and they actually asked for promo posters to hang in their windows. Then they invited me to a book signing featuring all of those local authors, and that was really fun. With an area the size of Phoenix, you've got a lot of resources at your disposal. Once you get your book(s) all set up and published, I'd start small with libraries and little mom-and-pop bookstores and then work your way up.

And it's a little thing, but invest in some decent business cards. I had mine done through Vistaprint and I highly recommend them for all promo materials, from bookmarks to posters to banners. They do excellent work for reasonable prices and they always have good coupon codes. The cards I made just have my name and email address along with little social media icons so people can look and see where they can find me. Then on the reverse side, I have a QR code that they can scan that takes them to my Amazon page. I want to do a new batch that has my website instead of my email (I feel like that would be more effective, and I see you do already have a site) but I still have a whole box of cards I haven't given out yet. *sigh*

[Matt]

thanks, E.J. I appreciate the advice. There are a number of independent/local bookstores here and I have done some preliminary research on some of them. It would be a good idea to talk to them.

I hadn't thought about libraries, but that's good advice too. There's a number here and they're pretty chill. I've worked at a few libraries. Those places are sacred.

I didn't think about business cards, etc. yet, but I'm putting that on my list. It will be helpful to have those and bookmarks/etc. I've used Vistaprint for other stuff in the past, and it is a good company.

Thanks again for your help!

[Owen]

Concentrate on your next book. Nothing else really matters.

[Frank]

createspace, kindle, kobo and lulu, i've heard good things about ingramspark and smashwords too

[Scott]

I'm actually in a very similar position. I've been working on this book for a while now. I finally have it edited, have a great cover, I've been working on FB/TWITTER/Web presence and I just recently released a novella which is a character development for the main, but I'm curious about pricing. My novella was a little more than 25K words and I tried to sell it for $2.00. It didn't do very well. Now granted I didn't really spend any time advertising it or marketing it prior to release like I am with the new book.

How do you determine price for a full size book? It's almost 85K words and is the first in a 3 book series. I'm only epublishing right now, but I'd like to move to print if it does ok. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[Thomas]

Determine what size book you're going to print and compare your estimated pages to books at the book store.

Also, most of the self pub companies also give info like how much you'll make per copy, so that way you don't sell it for too low and end up having zero gain.

[Chrys]

If you look at indie books, they're usually priced quite low. And the advice is that you're better off writing a series and then offering the first one for free. There are so many free books out there that few people will pay for a book by an unknown author.

[Dave]

I generally price my books at $2.99 for the eBook and $9.99 for paperback. I used KDP for both because it was the simplest way to handle it.

The trick for me was to use my existing front cover illustration with their cover creator so I didn't have to measure the spine width. That's a real bear with paperbacks and you have to get it right.

I also used a .docx for my ebook upload and a .pdf for my paperback. (A .docx with 6"x9" paper size) uploaded with 20"x40" pages and I have no idea how that happened.

Be aware that Amazon's default 6"x9" size is not that common in bookstores. I went with it because I'm deliberately trying to evoke the pulps, and they were that size.