Self Publishing Basics

Pre-Study

These are just some resources I think are important since almost every writer thinks they suck, and we all need to find ways to get past that.

Pursuit of Perfection by Kristine Katheryn Rusch 

Accompanying lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j68TKKEfrA

Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing by Dead Wesley Smith is sort of state-of-the-industry type stuff.

Attitude of a Fiction Author Lecture  – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Q8aw5jzrE

I think these are important, and I recommend them to everyone. They have played a big part in my writing and publishing decisions, and they’re a different perspective from what you usually hear.

Editing

I recommend only having a first reader or beta reader to make sure everything makes sense, and the story works and then getting a copy editor. They should check for typos, continuity, and grammar issues. You can find editor directories at: 

www.the-efa.org 

www.reedsy.com/editing/book-editor

You can also ask any writing groups you’re a part of on Facebook.

My personal process for polishing a book on a budget:

  • Finish the rough draft.
  • Flesh out the rough draft and fill in any scenes I skipped.
  • I do an audio read-through of the book using Natural Reader (https://www.naturalreaders.com/) so I can hear the story. You’ll hear repetitive words, typos, clunky sentences, and more! I have the premium subscription, but there is a free version if the voices aren’t grating to you. You can also read your manuscript aloud. 
  • Then, I use Grammarly and go through every suggestion. It does have some suggestions that aren’t just spelling and grammar, that they think “improve” your writing, but often don’t. I only use suggestions I think improve readability. If you don’t think it improves the book, ignore the suggestion. I hope this goes without saying, but NEVER blindly accept the changes, or it will turn your book into word salad.
  • Then I send it to a first reader or paid beta reader just to make sure the story is enjoyable, and everything makes sense. The best beta readers are your target audience and can be trusted to be honest with you. You can find a lot of people who are willing to read for about a $60 fee on Fiverr (depending on the length of the book). You can also find people in your life who will not charge you. 
  • If you can afford a copy editor, that step would go here. 
  • If not, and you’ve made any major changes based on beta reader feedback, you will want to use Grammarly again on those portions, and you may want to read over the book again (I usually do it on audio in Natural Reader) to make sure the things you’ve changed haven’t introduced any new continuity issues.

Covers

Questions to ask before you start:

  • Do you want to be in print? You’ll need to know your page count, and do a little additional research to find out the trim size commonly used in you’re genre.
  • Do you want your books available wide or in Kindle Unlimited?

Places to get great covers:

Getcovers.com

100Covers.com

Reedsy Marketplace https://reedsy.com/design/book-designer.

Researching covers overview:

  • You want your cover to match genre expectations. Find the best sellers in your genre (5 to 7), particularly ones you think your book is most similar to, and use those as examples to send your cover designer. 
    • Please note: How you want to publish will impact the covers your gather. If you want to be in Kindle Unlimited, gather the covers from successful KU authors. If you want to publish wide gather the covers from bestseller lists on other retailers (B&N, Kobo, Google Play)
  • When you get your cover back, if you like it, now you do some testing on it. 
    • Shrink it down to thumbnail size (like what would be on your phone while scrolling Amazon). 
      • Can you read your title? 
      • Can you read your author name? 
    • If not, you need to ask your cover artist to enlarge or change the font, or change the colors so it doesn’t blend into the design.
      If it passes that test take a screen capture of the cover, and paste it into a Word document and shrink it to thumbnail size. Take those best sellers you gathered earlier, paste and shrink them into the same document so your book is mixed in with 5 to 7 other books in your genre. 
      • Does it fit in? It should. 
      • The goal isn’t to stand out. The goal is to blend in so people think your book will be exactly what they like, because it looks like a book they already like.
  • Cover art has (almost) NOTHING to do with what you personally want in a cover. A cover is a marketing piece, not “your art”. Your art is inside. And with self publishing you can change the cover any time you want. If you keep your book in circulation, you’ll be changing it every 5 or so years as cover trends change. So don’t get married to it. However, you probably shouldn’t hate it either. Find a nice compromise. 

Resources:
For more details on this process, watch some or all of these videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeQqimp0qUIrXzwjl6mB0PTYLF16ZmjJj

Cover Research Template

Go into the main category you’re going to place your books in on Amazon or other retailers.

Analyze covers for:

Characters – (do they have people or not? Are they male, female, or couples? Is it more hands and chest, or are faces included? Count them up, don’t just go with what you THINK you’re seeing.)

Title Fonts – (2 fonts? 1 font? Readable, cursive, or otherwise inventive?)

Font Colors –

Dark/light – (are the majority of corners darker than the center?)

Illustration or Stock photo – (even most object photos are stock. We’re strictly looking for cartoons here)

Symbols – (if they aren’t character covers, what symbols are used?)

Backgrounds – (might overlap with symbols used. Are you seeing a lot of flowers or guns or handcuffs, etc.?)

Colors – (what colors pop out at you? Are they dark or light? Vibrant or muted?)

Books in a series need to clearly go together. They should be 70% identical. Fonts are always the same type and for the whole series. Keep all the things you researched the same. For example: If you’re doing shirtless men with no faces, don’t suddenly stick men with faces on the covers. Look at shared world series, they make it VERY obvious that books go together, since they all have different authors. Don’t put your subtitles on covers.

ISBNs

Questions to ask before you drop $575 (or more) on ISBNs:

  • Consider for a second what your purpose as a writer is:
    • Are you publishing for fun or is this your career?
    • Do you intend to publish more than one book? 
    • Do you only want you book available in e-book or do you want print too?
    • Are you going to do audiobooks or special editions. Each version of your book (e-book, audio, paperback, hardback, translations, things I can’t even think of) will require a new ISBN.

ISBNs – Pro/Con: 

  • ISBNs are expensive, and if you intend to make publishing your career, you’ll need a lot of them. One for every version of your book. 
  • They’re not entirely necessary these days because the companies you publish with will provide their own versions if you don’t have them. 
  • HOWEVER if you want a career and to get into libraries, ISBNs look more professional and it streamlines people’s ability to search for you. So if you choose to publish someplace other than Amazon, the same book doesn’t show up multiple times when readers are searching for it, which would get confusing.

Formatting

You have a few options for formatting your book.

The two most popular programs are:

Atticus if you’re a Windows user (though they do support Mac users too)
Vellum if you’re on a Mac

These make formatting a book nearly effortless. All you do is make each chapter title a Header in Word, upload your manuscript and pick your favorite theme. Then you just need to check through it and make sure it looks good.
Free options:

Reedsy: https://reedsy.com/write-a-book – I’ve never used this, but I’ve heard good things.

*shudder* Buckling down and doing research so you can format in Word.
(This is how I did it back in like 2014. 0/10, would not recommend. I was so happy to find a program that keeps me from pulling out all my hair. I use Atticus, and it’s all I’ve ever used in my current forays into publishing. Just… trust me, it will save you a headache if you pick a program and don’t use Word.)

Anything you pick will have a learning curve unless you pay someone on Fiverr, but since you can do it so easily, unless you want sometime custom, it’s probably an unnecessary expense.

Distribution

Where will you sell your book?

Amazon is the easiest retailer to start with for building a career as well as for instructions available and ease of use. Everyone publishes on it so there’s an abundance of information and Amazon itself does a pretty good job of giving instructions. You can do e-books, print and audiobooks all within Amazon’s ecosystem, and they’re usually the biggest retailer for book sales in general. 

You can also take part in Kindle Unlimited, which means the e-book is exclusive with Amazon, and you get paid by page reads. It’s a great way to jump start a career because more people are willing to take a risk on your book since they pay a monthly fee to Amazon for unlimited reading.

However, there are some serious long term downsides to consider if you’re building a career. If Amazon shuts down your account, which they sometimes do for no reason, you are just out the money. They will withhold all royalties owed. There are ways you can (hopefully) get reinstated, but that’s still a dangerous way to live. You’re at Amazon’s mercy. It’s like having all your money in one stock. You might do well, but if that stock tanks suddenly, all your money is gone.

The favored strategy by many authors is to start in KU, build a back list, and when you’re ready and can take the temporary hit to your income, go wide.

Also keep in mind if you’re in KU, Amazon only has rights to your e-books. You are allowed to put your print books anywhere you want.

Links to get started on Amazon:

KDP Jumpstart: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G202187740

KDP University: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200783400

Videos:

I, personally, would rather have a video walk through. Videos like these have to be updated often as the platform changes. It might be a good idea to search the Dale L. Roberts channel (or YouTube in general) for an updated tutorial if it’s long past October of 2024

Publishing on Amazon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnt33VibqSA

For the sake of brevity, I won’t go into other places to publish your books. I’ll let Dale do it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb6235uI4VY). Be sure to check out the description of his video for links. 

If you want to be wide and get into libraries and potentially book stores, you can pick and choose which distributors are right for you and look up how to publish on them. 

Blurbs Or Back Cover Copy

A blurb is your BEST chance to sell copies of your book. I am not expert at writing them, so here are some books about it:

Writing Killer Cover Copy by Elana Johnson

Fiction Blurbs: The Best Page Forward Way by Phoebe Ravencraft and Bryan Cohen

Research them a lot like you would cover art. Go into the top 100 of your category and go to the second page (50-100) and read the blurbs. Copy them down. See what you like and what you don’t. Analyze them based on the two books I recommended.

Be aware that you can look at the first 1-50 best sellers, but these authors are usually established, with large followings. They can break all the rules, and people will still buy their books. Something to always keep in mind.

More Resources I Like

For any further assistance I really recommend going to All Write Well. Maria Secoy is an excellent teacher and has a lot of paid and free resources. My method of cover research is pulled from her and The Courtney Project.

I’m a big fan of YouTube for researching any problems I come across. Another excellent channel not mentioned above is Kindlepreneur.

Facebook also has some fun groups to be a part of (just ignore the whining and read the posts that interest you). My favorites are 20booksto50K and Millionaire Author Mastermind, but there’s something out there for everyone.