The Self Publishing Process
The process of self publishing can be broken down into several discrete steps, or stages – although there are definitely times where the order, and the boundaries between them are a little fuzzy.
The Book Business
There’s a reason why this section comes first. Publishing books is a business – whether for you, or for the people who have created the tools you use to publish your books – it’s still a business. It’s important to understand as much as you can about that business, so that your book stands the best chance possible of at least recovering the money you invested in making it in the first place. As the publisher of your own book, you’ll be handling customer service, processing invoices, paying bills, tracking revenue for tax purposes, dealing with bookstores and wholesalers and more. If you’re publishing your book more for fun than for profit, that’s fine – but you’ll still want to track your expenditures, make sure your book looks good in its finished form, and keep your project on budget so it doesn’t become a strain on your family resources.
Writing & Editing
During this stage, you’ll actually create the content for your book. This may consist of actually writing it from scratch, or it may be that you’re compiling a collection of stories or recipes or pictures from a relative or friend. Once you’ve got that first draft all down on paper, it’s time to actually craft that into something worth reading! Editing the story, the language, the content and the way you’ve put it all together is critical in making your book the best it can be.
Design & Layout
Designing a book is deciding what it will look like, what shape it will be, whether it will be in colour and generally making all the decisions that relate to the physical product. Layout is actually taking your content and making the files that the printer will use to print your book.
Printing
The process of actually getting your book printed now involves many different options, and frequently multiple companies in order to maximize your approach. You always want to get several quotes from different printers before you decide – to make sure you’re using the right one for you.
Sales & Distribution
Sales is when you actually sell the book to a customer, and distribution is how you get it to them once they’ve purchased it. This is usually the most challenging part of the process!
Marketing & Publicity
Marketing is about identifying the audience for your book. Who are you selling to? How do you reach those readers? How do you convince them to buy your book? Publicity is about getting into as many different kinds of media as you can to get the word out about your book. Magazine articles, newspaper articles, reviewed on websites, interviewed on tv and radio and more.
Repackaging Your Content
This is when you take your book content, and figure out additional ways to sell that content. For example, creating a downloadable book for e-readers, or an audiobook from your content. This is a great way to supplement your income from your book sales.