If you’re the kind of writer who’s self-motivated, business-minded and loves promotion, you’re the perfect candidate to self-publish a book. Even if that sounds like a lot of work, don’t worry, as learning how to self-publish a book isn’t as difficult as you might think. It also comes with some incredible benefits.
If you’re weighing traditional publishing vs. self-publishing based on earning potential, that shouldn’t be a concern for you, either. Some self-published authors make incredible income going their own way.
Join us as we discuss a comprehensive set of six steps to self-publishing your own work.
Benefits of Self-Publishing a Book
Before diving into the six steps to self-publishing, let’s go over why it makes sense for some writers to shift to self-publishing in the first place.
Greater Earning Potential
Self-publishing a book means there is no large-scale publishing firm taking a huge percentage of your earned profits. Of course, they take those profits in exchange for promotion, printing and distribution, among other tasks, but these are duties you can handle and accomplish yourself, especially if you also offer digital versions of your books that don’t require printing to begin with.
Greater Creative Control
If you truly have a vision for a story but are worried that a publisher may taint that image by forcing you to make drastic changes, that’s one of the main reasons to learn how to publish your own book.
Self-publishing means you’ll maintain creative control, keeping the rights to your characters and storyline and avoiding being forced to alter anything based on an external publisher’s desires. Those publishers may also drop authors who say things they don’t like in public or on social media.
Greater Accessibility
By signing with a traditional publisher, it can take anywhere from nine to 18 months for your book to be available at retail, but through self-publishing, you can submit your final draft to a printer and have a shipment of books ready within days.
If you opt for print-on-demand services, there’s no waiting at all. Customers can order your book whenever they like and get a freshly printed copy sent to them quickly and efficiently.
Traditional Publishing vs. Self Publishing
Finally, before you check out our six steps to self-publishing, you need to make sure that self-publishing is definitely for you.
Traditional Publishing
The pros of traditional publishing include:
- Not having to schedule appearances or arrange promotion as an author
- All details of printing handled by publisher
- Access to a publisher’s connections to retailers and distributors
But the cons include:
- Sacrificing a large percentage of profits
- Could be dropped by publisher house
The biggest drawback to traditional publishing, however, is that the author has to give up a fair amount of their creative control to guarantee their book gets the green light.
Self-Publishing
Regarding self-publishing, the pros include:
- Complete creative control in the author’s hands
- Ability for an author to keep their profits
- Printing and shipping books immediately
On the other hand, particular cons include:
- Author responsibility for editing, promotion and design work
- Having to find outlets for the book
To maximize their success in self-publishing, authors need to constantly be on the lookout for the best way to present their work to new audiences.
How to Self-Publish a Book
Here are six steps to self-publishing a book, which represent the essential measures you need to take to go from having an idea for a story to placing books in readers’ hands.
Write and Edit
First, you need to write the book, and you’ll likely need an editor as well. Readers won’t put up with poor grammar, typos or an awful story structure, and your editor will be there to help you get the most out of the story you have already crafted to make it as pleasing to your audience as possible.
Develop Your Book Design
If you have strong graphic design skills, you may want to handle the book design yourself. If that’s not the case, you can hire others to cover the design work for you.
Depending on how much capital you have, you can go with a well-regarded freelancer or hire an entire professional design team. No matter what you choose to pursue, you need to ensure you have a solid, eye-catching book design.
Choose a Self-Publishing Platform
Some of the easier platforms to self-publish include Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble Press and IngramSpark. Be aware that each takes a certain percentage of book profits or requires some form of upfront payment for setting you up with an account and getting started with printing. You can also opt for printing partners like Print Bind Ship to get print-on-demand services.
Format Your Book
Every platform will require you to submit your book in a specific format. Your book will have to follow the rules of the particular format to look right once it’s transferred to the printed page. Find out the font types and sizes that are preferred, how big your margins should be and whether you’ll include any pictures.
Print and Distribute
If you’re taking the e-book approach, there is no printing involved, but you’ll still have to set up some form of a digital storefront to sell the books. Print Bind Ship can take care of crafting your books and handle the logistics of shipping to customers.
Market Your Book
Without a publisher behind you, you’ll have to get creative with your marketing. You can pay for traditional advertising in magazines, TV and radio; make a website; become active on social media to interact with your fans directly; and build a following. You can also advertise on social platforms such as Amazon Ads, Google Ads and Instagram.
The Final Self-Publishing Step: Partner with Print Bind Ship
Bringing a book from its initial idea to a finished product is every author’s dream, and self-publishing has made this dream more accessible than ever. With Print Bind Ship, you can rest assured that every copy of your book will represent your vision and make it into the hands of eager readers. We also have designers ready to give your book stunning artwork.
If you’re ready to make your book a reality, contact Print Bind Ship today.
FAQ
Self-publishing usually costs anywhere between $500 and $5,000 depending on the services required, the book’s length, your choice of paperback vs. hardback options and whether you’ll opt for print-on-demand services or have batches of books created.
On the U.S. Copyright Office’s website, you can create an account and register the copyright for your book.
Some self-publishing platforms don’t require any money upfront and charge royalties from book sales. This “free” way to publish can cost authors more on the back end as the platforms take more profits than they’d like.