What is Self-Publishing?
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Self-publishing doesn't just refer to literature. it can be any printed or digital materials, so memoirs, novels, manuals, catalogs, look books, brand books, photo books, cookbooks, literally anything you could fit inside a book can be self-published.
With self publishing, you maintain complete control over your content from the designing, to the editing, to the format, the price setting, it's all you, this is your show.
Print-on-demand, as it says in the name, means that the book is created as soon as it is ordered. We're able to print one copy, 10 copies, 100 copies, as you need them. So, this really alleviates the stress of having to buy hundreds of thousands of books, and then buy a storage unit to house them.
Copy-editing: spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. If this brings back memories of you getting test papers with red marks all over them, this is exactly what we're talking about. Copy-editing can also include your table of contents and a little bit of your formatting.
Format - So this is the formatting arrangement and design of your content. This can include font size, your margins, and the layout of the manuscript.
Distribution is when you put your book out into the world. You can sell it through Amazon or Barnes and Noble, those are some classic retailers you think of when you think of book distribution.
ISBN -This is the unique identifying number that publishers assign to books that denotes the publisher, the edition, and the binding of that specific book.
Proof copy - This is a copy of the final product. We always recommend that you want to get a proof copy. You've worked so hard to get to that point, and I know you want to pull the trigger and buy 500 copies and, you know, probably that's gonna be a really good investment for you, but why not start with just one and make sure everything is right?
The first step in self-publishing is finding your passion and then finding the audience for it. You want to start with something you love or something that you are passionate about or something you have information on that can help other people.
Now that you have your audience, you can go ahead and create that awesome content for them. It’s always really helpful to go ahead and do some research in your genre and your market and see what's out there and what isn't and - Pro Tip - focus on the what isn't part, because then you know there's a need for it. Once you've identified that, it's time to hit the books, do some research and then start writing that content. Writing is obviously a huge piece of it and you want it to be really well informed, so don't be afraid to take your time to really research the market and the genre. See what other people are doing, see what they're not doing and help that inform your writing process.
Editing - So you wrote the content and it's so great. Now it's time to chop out all that dumb stuff that you never should have put in there anyway. So, put the manuscript down, call up a professional because editing is super crucial, and get some fresh eyes on your manuscript so you can move on to the next step.
Format and design - make your book look like a book. This is where you look at the margins, the font size, the layout, the titles and all that to make sure it looks professional and exactly the way you want it.
Pricing and distribution - this is where you set the price of your book and then you decide where you want to sell it. There are a lot of different ways and a lot of different avenues you can get your work out there, so take a minute to really research and see what makes the most sense for you and your book and then set a price that's gonna fly off the shelf.
Publishing - this is arguably the most exciting step because this is when you become an author.
Depending on what platform you choose, you will go through their steps, upload the manuscript and then after checking those boxes that we just mentioned, you'll hit publish and now your work is available to the masses.
Marketing and promotion, so this is key, and it is an ongoing process. You can't stop, won't stop, with the marketing and promotion. You can start at the beginning, and you're gonna want to build that platform, but this is something that you will always be going back to
and it's a huge part of making or breaking a successful book launch.