There has never been a better time to write a book!

Self-publishing gives everyone the ability to be a successful author. No longer do you have to have to wait to be accepted by a traditional publisher. You can publish your book yourself through any online distributor and they’ll push it to the retailer stores for you.

Even more exciting to us is when self-publishing becomes an entrepreneurial journey for our authors. They are self-publishing their manuscript to springboard an even bigger dream down the road. They’re success is the result of thinking outside the box and looking for as many opportunities as they can find. We helped them dream big and supply the design expertise for a high quality professional product to market to their unique audience.

We’ve had the privilege of working with some very entrepreneurial minded authors who have had success with their books. We share their creative efforts in this post. They chose to self-publish for these reasons:

To share their passion with the next generation
To connect and promote to the network they already had
To manage the creative direction of the book
To create a quality textbook for a specific industry

They are successful authors because they continue to look for new opportunities and new audiences for their books.

What is Self-Publishing

Today, publishing a book is a possibility for any writer. Although Traditional Publishing still is an option, they are very selective and expect the author to have a significant audience already established. When they choose to invest in a book they expect it to have a quick return on their investment. They also assume all creative control.

Self-publishing your book allows:

You, the author to retain all rights and ownership
You, the author to set the price and earn all the profits
You, the author to make all creative decisions
You, the author to publish your book on any distribution channel you choose

Read more about our self-publishing services here.

The Self-Publishing Process

As the self-published author, you are also considered the AUTHOR and PUBLISHER. It’s your responsibility to make all the decisions on your book. This means you decide what the cover looks like, where the book will be sold, and the price of the book, plus many other things needed to move the book from a manuscript to the retailer.

We’ve broken down the process of self-publishing into sections to help you wrap your head around all the details. We hope this gives you a better understanding of self-publishing, but if you still have questions, please contact us directly. We’re here to take the stress out of self-publishing.

GETTING A MANUSCRIPT READY FOR SELF-PUBLISHING

There are the steps to self-publishing a book.

Writing the manuscript – Your job!
Professional editing – A professional editor provides multiple levels of services.
Creating illustrations and graphics (optional) – We can help or we can work with your illustrator
Cover design – We love building great covers that sell your book! Read the “10 Mistakes to Avoid when Designing Your Cover!”
Formatting the manuscript for print in digital software such as Adobe InDesign – We specialize in book production and know how to prepare it for the publisher as a print or ebook file.
Uploading digital files to the distributor for printing – We know how to get this done right!
Marketing and selling your book – We create the customized marketing materials you’ll need to sell your book.

CHOOSING THE DISTRIBUTOR

PRINTER/DISTRIBUTOR OPTIONS

The process of creating a book starts with an understanding of the printing and distribution options available in the self-publishing or indie book market.

The printer/distributor is responsible for printing the book and sending it to the book retailers (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBook, Books-A-Million) you’ve chosen.

As the author, you can purchase the book directly from the distributor in whatever quantities you choose and pay only for printing and shipping fees.

If you choose a POD (print on demand) printer/distributor they will print and send out a book for you every time it is ordered from the retailers. You don’t need to fulfill the orders yourself – no need to run to the post office or have a pile of books in your garage.

There are many book printer/distributors for the indie author who wants to self-publish. These are a few we’ve worked with and recommend:

IngramSpark (Hardcover, trade paperbacks and eBooks with worldwide distribution)
Kindle Direct Publisher (eBook and trade paperbacks with Amazon’s KDP)
Draft2Digital (eBook and some print with wide distribution)

Each one of these companies specializes in different things.

If you’re just publishing an ebook and/or paperback book, KDP is free and easy. Their focus is on digital books and trade paperbacks to the Amazon platform only. Plus, they already have a great marketing platform out there for you to tap into.

For more book format options, IngramSpark publishes paperback, hardcover, and ebooks and has wide distribution channels for a small fee.

You can also be creative and use two different book publishers. If you really want to have a hardcover version of your book – submit it to Ingram for POD. Then, publish the trade paperback version and ebook through KDP. You’re in charge, so you can decide what will be best for your book!

It’s time to think of yourself as an entrepreneur or as we prefer to say an “AUTHORPRENEUR” Find out more about marketing your book and becoming an Authorpreneur here!

It’s important to start you book publishing journey with the knowledge of available options. Please do your research to find what fits your needs best.

PRINTING COSTS

The cost of the book (how much it costs to print each book) is determined by a number of things.

TRIM SIZE OF THE BOOK – industry standards are less expensive than custom sizes
COVER STYLE – soft or hard cover, with or without dust jackets
BINDING – check your printer for which type(s) they offer
COVER FINISH – gloss or matte
NUMBER OF INSIDE PAGES – minimum for self-publishing is 24 interior pages, remember to include these pages too – copyright, title page, TOC and any additional pages for images.
PAPER STOCK – weight, color and finish
COLOR OR BLACK AND WHITE INTERIOR – your book is a color interior even if you want to have black type and a few color charts or photos.
QUANTITY – the more you print at one time the less cost per book or you can choose Print on Demand, which prints one at a time based on orders.

ADDING ILLUSTRATIONS

Does your book need illustrations? If you’re working with an illustrator, you’ll need to discuss the following with them BEFORE they start your work. We have a post here on how to create digital illustrations for your book.

THE SIZE OF THE FINISHED BOOK – You need to make sure the images you draw will fit the book dimensions. Make sure the book size you’re considering is available with your printer or it’ll cost you lots of money to be unique!
HOW MANY IMAGES YOU NEED TO DRAW – Work with the illustrator to create a story board (see our video on YouTube on how to build a storyboard with Canva) of the book, so you both know exactly how many images need to created.
BE CAREFUL TO FOLLOW PRINTER SPECS – and make sure you leave plenty of room for bleeds on all outside edges, make sure your most important elements aren’t too close to the edge. The final drawings should not have cropmarks.
IF TRADITIONALLY DRAWN, SCAN THE FINISHED ARTWORK with a high-resolution printer at 1200 dpi and save to a .tiff file format.

COVER DESIGN

Having a well-designed cover is the most important thing you can do to promote and sell your book. (See the covers we’ve done in our portfolio here)

This is not the time to try your hand at design or hire the neighbor’s kid to create your cover in Microsoft Word or even Canva. There is an art to creating a cover that will appeal to your target market, capture attention, and sell your book over the competition. Read the “10 Mistakes to Avoid when designing your cover!”

But remember, the front cover is only part of what you’ll need to publish if you’re planning on a trade paperback or hardcover book. The publisher will need a complete cover spread file – front, back, and spine with crops and bleeds. The barcode will need to be added as well.

COVER TEMPLATES

Book distributors usually provide a cover template to use based on your page count with the spine size prepared. This template is prepared to be used with InDesign or even Photoshop if necessary. (We don’t recommend using Photoshop for your whole cover design, but it’s great for the background image design work, then the cover can be completed in InDesign)

BOOK BLURB

Make sure the copy on the back of your book, sometimes referred to as a “book blurb” compels the reader to buy it. There is a science to copy writing and this is another place to make sure you get the best you can afford.

The other important piece of hiring a cover designer is their ability to create the book mock-ups and advertising you’ll need for promoting and marketing your book. You’ll need images created for social media channels, your author website, printed pieces for in-person networking and any other ads and marketing ideas you and your team discover!

BGD TIP: Don’t wait until your manuscript is done – find your cover designer as soon as possible so you can do all the presale marketing with the actual cover images!

INTERIOR BOOK DESIGN

Before sending the files to the designer, please make sure they are completely edited. This will save you money in the long run. You will be charged by the hour to do excessive edits outside the scope of your contract.

At Becky’s Graphic Design we use Adobe InDesign for our book production. This industry standard software allows us to create a beautiful interior consistently.

The more page styles and special features, the more time is involved and the more costly your project will be. A basic novel would not be as expensive to produce as a complex non-fiction with illustrations and endnotes.

We offer our clients a proof of the layout design, fonts and page styles we will be using for review. The design should be consistent with the cover design as much as possible. When the layout is finished we can quickly export to PDF and provide the entire book to our client or a chapter at a time for review.

BGD TIP: Make sure you arrange for your book designer as soon as possible so they can schedule your project on their calendar. A complex book can take 10 days or longer depending on other projects on the designer’s docket.

OUR SERVICES

Are you ready to self-publish your book but not sure if you’re comfortable managing it all yourself? We can help. We have over 20 years of experience working with authors and distributors. Plus, we have a wide connection of collaborative partners who are experts in their field.

Feel free to check out our book design packages for our pricing structure or set up an appointment to tell us about your book or email us through our contact form.