Questions about getting started.

[Editio]

You may have some questions about how to get started. This is a good place to start asking questions. Below is a nuts-and-bolts of how to put your book on the kindle.

http://editioselfpublishing.com/self-...

[Everly]

We talk all about self-publishing but it's interesting to take a step back and think about wether it's best to do it yourself or try for traditional publishing.

[Al "Tank"]

I hope this will help. It's an article I wrote on Facebook:

Is Self Publishing an eBook a Viable Option?

Short answer: Yes.

Now, considering that I work for an eBook publisher, that’s a surprising answer. But in today’s world, it’s an honest one.

If you have the self-discipline and financing to do it right, your self-published book can probably do almost as well as one that’s professionally handled by a “real” publisher (from here on, by “publisher”, I mean an eBook publisher who does all the finish work from editing to publishing/distribution of a work, not a vanity “press”). And if your book sells anywhere close to the number of copies it would have if you’d gone through a publisher, you might make more money.

What do I have to do to self-publish?

Well, first, you have to polish your work until it shines, but you’ll have to do that anyway to attract the attention of a publisher.

You have to find an expert “story editor” to help you fix any plot, pacing, and other niggling problems that you’ve overlooked because you were too involved in your work (and possibly mesmerized by your own prose). A good, reliable, story editor (or “book doctor”) is hard to find.

After that, you’ll need a copy editor to catch those nasty language errors, such as punctuation, spelling (no your spell-checker doesn’t catch the incorrect spelling of a word that has homonyms), and awkward phrasing, just to mention a few things that can spoil a good book. A good English major can handle the language problems, but one that can fix word use and writing style problems is difficult to come by. For instance: getting rid of unnecessary dialog tags.

Now, you need that all-important cover art. It needs to be appropriate to the genre and content of your story while being designed to interest a prospective customer. If it’s not right, you may not get any sales, or your sales will be a lot fewer than with a good cover. The title and any other text need to add to the (legitimate) sales “pitch” of the artwork, both in content and in style.

Next you’ll need a “back cover” blurb, sales text that goes on the sales page at Amazon and other outlets. Here again, you may want to engage the services of a competent professional.

After you’ve assembled all the pieces, including cover, back cover blurb, inside pitch, copyright page, etc.; you’ll have to pull it all together and properly format it to look professional and pleasing to the reader’s eye.

Then you finally get to convert it into the various formats needed for eReaders. If you’re going to sell it just through Amazon and Smashwords, you can use their converters, but you’re going to have a very frustrating learning curve before you get it right (and don’t settle for anything less than “right”).

Now, you’ve reached the golden day when your child is real and available for sale.

Did you remember to pitch it before hand to build up anticipation? Well, you’re job isn’t done; you’ll need to promote the dickens out of it. And that’s another subject that’s been discussed extensively in other articles.

So, why should I consider a publisher?

Some writers don’t want to deal with all this stuff. They want to write and turn the bulk of the production work over to someone else while they work on their next, hopefully, “best-seller”. For that, they’re willing to share their profits with that “someone else”. They know in the back of their mind that they’ll still have to do some of the marketing, and they begrudge even that time away from their beloved word processor.

Learning all this stuff is hard work. Believe me, I’ve been through it because it’s my job. I can do all of the things I’ve talked about, BUT I DON’T for a few of reasons:

· There are other people within the firm that can do some things better than I can. “Story edit” immediately comes to mind. I can do a story edit, but we have other editors who are much better at it.
· Given enough time, I can produce an adequate cover, BUT there are professional artists who can produce a cover that makes mine look like the work of a rank amateur.
· I just don’t have the time to do everything. I’m part of a staff of talented people who share the burden, each doing what s/he is best at doing, and who have learned to work efficiently with each other. And that’s one of the best things about having a seasoned team available for producing a finished work.

There’s also the problem of the “stigma” of being self-published. It’s getting better, but it’s still there and will remain. Why? Because too many bad authors will self-publish stuff they can’t get published through legitimate routes. Their ego will not admit that their manuscript isn’t up to standards. Their activity pours sludge into the self-publishing pond. Some works will still rise out of the pollution, but it’s hard to be seen when you’re immersed in murky waters. If you already have a “name” in your genre, then that name will keep you above the surface of that metaphorical pond, but if no one ever heard of you, getting noticed is going to be that much more difficult.

There are hundreds of thousands of new titles released every year. Your job, even if published, is to be noticed while stuck in that crowd.

I’ve published my own work (fiction under a pen name) and I don’t do it all myself. I know how, but someone who does the final edits on his own work is doomed to failure. I’m just too close to my own prose. It’s too familiar and the errors “look right” to my eyes. INCLUDING THIS ARTICLE.

Note: This isn't a pitch for manuscripts. We're not taking new ones right now. Just some information to help writers make a difficult decision.