First in the Series: Laying Down the Groundwork
As I prepare A Pilgrimage of Pests for print copy form, I thought I'd go through the steps I've taken to bring this process to fruition. I've prepared the following chronology for my own reference as I prepare my second book for print; and as a guide for other prospective self-publishing authors to follow.
So you have written your manuscript and now you are ready to see it in print.
There are choices.
(1) You can attempt to get the attention of the Publishing Trade Houses.
This is a noble thing to try and far be it for me to dissuade you from trying. But statistics and the track record of those who try - who are not already famous or infamous (whatever the case may be) - is not good. Statistically, less than 1% of the unsolicited manuscripts become published books. Ouch! Here's another juicy tidbit. Out of every 10,000 children's books, 3 get published. Double ouch!
(2) You can go through what has been known as vanity presses.
These are the companies that promise you the world and give you (at a premium cost) a boatload of your published books to sell on your own. This may work, or it may result in a garage or attic (or both) filled with your books (which you will eventually have to give away so you can fit your car in your garage again).
(3) You can self-publish.
Not too many years ago, the self-published author and their product was considered inferior in the book industry. Amateurish, unpolished, not a serious player - all ways to describe the author who followed Sinatra's lead and did it my way. But with the sudden surge of the eBook industry and the popularity of POD (print on demand), more and more authors are choosing to self-publish.
Option 3 is the one I chose. (Well, to be honest, I only chose Option 3 after having the pleasure of pulling one too many rejection letters out of the mailbox - having first chosen Option 1).
Now that these options are out of the way, let me begin where I eventually started:
Put Your Book in eBook Form
One of the fastest and easiest ways to get your book out to potential readers is by converting it to eBook form. The two main players in the industry are Amazon's Kindle and to a lesser extent Barnes and Noble's Nook. I have used both for A Pilgrimage of Pests. I will say, the Nook app is more user friendly, but the online support (if you could even call it that) is horrible. Kindle's learning curve is steeper and knowledge of HTML formatting is helpful. Kindle support consists of e-mailing your questions to their support staff. If you are really struggling, they may provide temporary access to their phone line so you can actually talk to a real person - but this is rare. There are fee based services out there which will format your book for Kindle. Or you can wade through the online articles and community forums of do's and don'ts and thus learn how to format your book yourself.
Or you can do what I did. I relied on my son, a software engineer, who converted my Word file into HTML and I just had to upload it to Kindle.
(recent note: Since my early foramtting struggles, I have discovered the free kindle publication, Building Your Book for Kindle. Now we're talking. This is invaluable and will take you step by step through the formatting process. You can order through the kindle store).
Make an Author Website
When this was first suggested to me, I thought it was rather silly. Why in the world would I need a website and what in the world would I put on it if I did have one? And most of all, how in the heck would I make one even if I wanted to?
Needless to say, I made one; and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Here are four popular choices for your website builder: WordPress, Wix, Square Space and Weebly. There are more out there, but I found that Weebly was best for me. It is inexpensive, easy to learn and has an adequate SEO (search engine optimization). WordPress is the considered to have the best SEO. This means WordPress sites are more likely to rise to the top of Google's search list (Google loves WordPress). But learning how to use WordPress is a lot harder than Weebly. Weebly is a more intuitive. It's a simple drag and drop process and will seem relatively straightforward - especially to anyone with experience with programs like PowerPoint. Not to belabor the point or turn this into a Weebly love fest, but check out the link below for an explanation of Weebly's features and options.
So you have written your manuscript and now you are ready to see it in print.
There are choices.
(1) You can attempt to get the attention of the Publishing Trade Houses.
This is a noble thing to try and far be it for me to dissuade you from trying. But statistics and the track record of those who try - who are not already famous or infamous (whatever the case may be) - is not good. Statistically, less than 1% of the unsolicited manuscripts become published books. Ouch! Here's another juicy tidbit. Out of every 10,000 children's books, 3 get published. Double ouch!
(2) You can go through what has been known as vanity presses.
These are the companies that promise you the world and give you (at a premium cost) a boatload of your published books to sell on your own. This may work, or it may result in a garage or attic (or both) filled with your books (which you will eventually have to give away so you can fit your car in your garage again).
(3) You can self-publish.
Not too many years ago, the self-published author and their product was considered inferior in the book industry. Amateurish, unpolished, not a serious player - all ways to describe the author who followed Sinatra's lead and did it my way. But with the sudden surge of the eBook industry and the popularity of POD (print on demand), more and more authors are choosing to self-publish.
Option 3 is the one I chose. (Well, to be honest, I only chose Option 3 after having the pleasure of pulling one too many rejection letters out of the mailbox - having first chosen Option 1).
Now that these options are out of the way, let me begin where I eventually started:
Put Your Book in eBook Form
One of the fastest and easiest ways to get your book out to potential readers is by converting it to eBook form. The two main players in the industry are Amazon's Kindle and to a lesser extent Barnes and Noble's Nook. I have used both for A Pilgrimage of Pests. I will say, the Nook app is more user friendly, but the online support (if you could even call it that) is horrible. Kindle's learning curve is steeper and knowledge of HTML formatting is helpful. Kindle support consists of e-mailing your questions to their support staff. If you are really struggling, they may provide temporary access to their phone line so you can actually talk to a real person - but this is rare. There are fee based services out there which will format your book for Kindle. Or you can wade through the online articles and community forums of do's and don'ts and thus learn how to format your book yourself.
Or you can do what I did. I relied on my son, a software engineer, who converted my Word file into HTML and I just had to upload it to Kindle.
(recent note: Since my early foramtting struggles, I have discovered the free kindle publication, Building Your Book for Kindle. Now we're talking. This is invaluable and will take you step by step through the formatting process. You can order through the kindle store).
Make an Author Website
When this was first suggested to me, I thought it was rather silly. Why in the world would I need a website and what in the world would I put on it if I did have one? And most of all, how in the heck would I make one even if I wanted to?
Needless to say, I made one; and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Here are four popular choices for your website builder: WordPress, Wix, Square Space and Weebly. There are more out there, but I found that Weebly was best for me. It is inexpensive, easy to learn and has an adequate SEO (search engine optimization). WordPress is the considered to have the best SEO. This means WordPress sites are more likely to rise to the top of Google's search list (Google loves WordPress). But learning how to use WordPress is a lot harder than Weebly. Weebly is a more intuitive. It's a simple drag and drop process and will seem relatively straightforward - especially to anyone with experience with programs like PowerPoint. Not to belabor the point or turn this into a Weebly love fest, but check out the link below for an explanation of Weebly's features and options.
I can only speak from my experience as a Weebly user, but once you decide on your website builder, you will have another major decision - your domain name. I was advised to use my own name, if available. It is also best to use a .com ending. It's more professional. I would have opted to change my domain name in some way, if .com had not been available. You can purchase your domain name from Weebly or go outside to GoDaddy , HostGator, Bluehost or many others. You can also get a free domain name from Weebly, but Weebly will put a small promotional ad on your site and the domain will include weebly.com at the end, complicating the name and, in my opinion, making it appear a bit more amateurish.
I paid the extra cost to have my own domain name, independent of the Weebly brand.
Now, just like me, you may ask: What in the world will I put on my site? As I previously stated, I thought content development would be a huge problem. But it wasn't long before the ideas began to flow and my website grew rather quickly. Here is a link that provides content ideas.
I paid the extra cost to have my own domain name, independent of the Weebly brand.
Now, just like me, you may ask: What in the world will I put on my site? As I previously stated, I thought content development would be a huge problem. But it wasn't long before the ideas began to flow and my website grew rather quickly. Here is a link that provides content ideas.
Your author website, to quote the page referenced in link above: is an author’s, homebase, a marketing and networking hub and a portal that allows communication to flow between an author and his or her readers.
I couldn't agree more.
I couldn't agree more.
Design Business Cards
Not only is my son a software engineer, but he also works for VistaPrint. Why would I order business cards from anyone else? VistaPrint has hundreds of templates to chose from. You can also chose to design your own card and personalize it however you like. VistaPrint's online program is very user friendly. You'll find the final product to be inexpensive, elegant and professional. Make sure to include all the pertinent information advertising your work. Most importantly, now that you have your own website, have your web address printed on your card. Potential readers can now find your site and explore all you have to offer. That's a whole lot easier than hoping they will remember your site's URL or handing it to them scrawled out on a crumpled napkin.
Next: Beginning Your Own Publishing Company
Next: Beginning Your Own Publishing Company