Self Publishing A Book

Thinking of self publishing a book?

Well, are you? Thinking of self publishing a book? Then read on, my friend…

I can just imagine the scene. It’s beautiful. There you are, your precious manuscript laid proudly before you on your desktop as a satisfied smile plays around your lips. You laugh a little, because you can’t quite believe what you have achieved. Maybe there’s a glass of champagne to hand as you congratulate yourself, quite rightly I might add, on the completion of such a significant, formidable challenge.

You wrote a book! Bravo to you! (Can you hear me applauding? I am!)

But what are you going to do with it now? Reality begins to set in as you realise that it’s time for the next step. Maybe you wrote it just for you. Or perhaps you have a plan in mind to chase an agent and snag a traditional publishing deal. Good for you! I wish you all the best. Competition is fierce, but some do make it, and it could well be you, if that’s what you want. Indeed, why not?

However there is another option open to authors, and that, of course, is to self publish our books. So let’s take a few minutes to talk about that.

Ready to self publish that book?

I know from experience that self publishing a novel means just that – self publishing. All the work is on you. All. Of. It. From the concept to the writing to the editing to the formatting to the design… get the picture? That’s a lot of work. Also, is your story coherent? Do your timelines work? Are your characters believable? Is the dialogue credible?

Is your manuscript clean?

By which I mean, have you trawled through all 100,000 or so words of your wonderful story, and caught each and every tiny error that has sneaked its way inside? Trust me, no matter how careful we are, those pesky little mistakes creep their way into our cherished work and sit there, just waiting to embarrass us! And when we choose to self publish a book, whatever we send to print will be printed. Including typos, spelling errors, and grammatical mishaps.

No shame in asking for help

You’ve done an incredible thing, you know. You’ve written a book. Just think of it! As mentioned in a previous post – ‘Do You Want To Write A Book?’ – only 3% of people who want to pen a novel actually get down to it and bring it to completion. So kudos to you for your amazing achievement!

However, why not seek out a little assistance with the rest of the workload? Writing and self publishing a book can be a very lonely journey, there’s no doubt about that. But you don’t need to continue along such a solitary path if you don’t want to. Ask for help!

Who can help?

Get a trusted friend to cast a second pair of eyes over your work, and give you an honest opinion of it. You won’t have an editor provided for you if you choose to self publish, so why not find ARC and beta readers to check for continuity? Whilst writing, you have been down in the dirt with the details, (I know, I’ve been there!) so it is likely that larger mistakes have been missed. Locate an editor who can streamline your work. Hire a skilled proof reader to give it shine and polish, so that when you finally hit the publish button, you know you have a work you can rightly be proud of.

I personally love the editing side of writing. I actively enjoy the process of reading, re-reading, and scanning through text, piece by little piece, then making those necessary adjustments until the whole beautiful thing is crafted to near perfection. A lot of other authors hate the very thought of it, so this is one of the reasons I set up my proof reading service. If I enjoy something that other writers hate, why not put my expertise to work for them as well as myself? This applies to traditional publishing too, because no one wants to send a faulty manuscript off to an agent. How mortifying, when they find those irritating mistakes that we all know should no longer be there!

Get that book published!

Indie authors are on the rise. If you choose to join the ranks, welcome! Going down the avenue of self publishing can be a very fulfilling endeavour. (You can check out my work here, on my author page in Amazon. Give me a follow to keep up to date!) The book is yours, the rights remain in your full control, and the royalties are far higher than you would find with a traditional deal. You can even alter your work after publication if you feel the need, and this, in my opinion, is a total game-changer.

In truth, it is an absorbing, fascinating, addictive process, and the end result is that you will have the complete satisfaction of knowing that you did it all. Yourself.

Of course, there are challenges involved in self publishing a book, and I intend to address these individually in future posts, but, for now, trust me when I say there is nothing quite like holding that finished novel in your hands after all the work that has gone into producing it. It really is something to be incredibly proud of.