Self-publishing - hints? tips? pitfalls?

I am planning to self-publish a book. I'd like it to be available on amazon, so understand I need an ISBN number.

Beyond that - although I have the topic and a fair amount of content - I am a complete novice.

How do you work out if you just do kindle, or hard copies?
How do you work out pagination - does it cost more per page?
Can you add photos, how does that affect the cost?

And those are just the ones off the top of my head...

Anyone done it? Anyone got any advice?

I haven't self published but I know that Amazon does a scheme where you can publish with them and it's all supposed to be very easy.
I'd be wary of Amazon but I read a lot of authors who do self publish. Not always successfully to be honest. Writers who left publishers to self publish but don't employ a good enough editor and their work suffers for it. You should also check how much royalties you'd get.
It's easier to give advice if I knew what your book was about.
I write in the m/m romance and it's very much a genre publishing. I'm published by one of the leading independent publishers in this genre. They sent me a contract and did everything else. They provided two editors and a cover artist and dealt with everything else.
I know you can set up your own publishing company too. Had a friend who did this and I've seen other authors do it too. My friends ended in disaster but that was more to do with him being an alcoholic and totally unable to write in a professional way.

About 9 years ago I used a publisher called Lulu to self publish hard backed copies of a book of old family letters for family members. There was no contract as its more a vanity publish. I can buy copies of my own book at cost price or I can sell it through the publisher at the published price

They provided a barcode etc and you had the option to list it on Amazon (the price went up when you picked that option). You can decide how big your pages are etc all of this will impact on the price.

I used the Amazon one to do a paperback version and I got halfway through doing a kindle version - but stopped a couple of years ago and haven't got started again.

I still get the odd purchase which is a nice surprise.

I know bugger all but I've always thought you needed a literary agent to take you on in order to stand any chance of selling any copies.

What kind of book is it, Wackie?

Thanks @Cassandra333

It's a 'funny' dog book - my dog has a FB page (obvs she cant type so I write it for her in her voice).

I met some publishers a while back via a contact, and was told "we've got our funny dog book for this year"... also approached loads of agents with nada.

I have a lot of work to do on it still, but it's coming together - there are some good jokes in it if I say so myself, and without any publicity I get roughly 120 likes per post on FB which I am told is quite high by some companies who have FB pages (sounds like a minnow to me but there you go)

I can do the text but its the practicalities that defeat me at the mo.

I also did this through Lulu in 2006. Even if I hadn't actually published on there they had a lot of practical how-to's, so it may be worth just going to the site to look around. Amazon's publishing wasn't much of a thing yet so I never got a chance to go through them. It was also very easy to pull it from publication when I wanted.

You can self publish on amazon kdp. Theres loads of youtube videos on how to use it but its fairly easy. I think if you needed a book cover or illustrations you could see if you could hire someone on fiver or task rabbits to do it.

ok I need to gird my loins and go back into amazon kdp, and check out lulu. I'd rather just write the stuff!

I remember somebody ages ago mentioning something called 'blurb' for self-publishing.
Don't know anything about it but may be worth a look @Wackie Jeaver

Wackie Jeaver said:

I am planning to self-publish a book. I'd like it to be available on amazon, so understand I need an ISBN number.

Beyond that - although I have the topic and a fair amount of content - I am a complete novice.

How do you work out if you just do kindle, or hard copies?
How do you work out pagination - does it cost more per page?
Can you add photos, how does that affect the cost?

And those are just the ones off the top of my head...

Anyone done it? Anyone got any advice?

Click to expand...

Hi @Wackie Jeaver I have experience of self-publishing a kindle using Kindlecreate on Amazon. I published a knitting pattern to test the process and it was very straightforward and cost zero as it's basically a digital download-no paper or printing or distribution costs. If you set the right price you can get 70% copyright. I looked at youtube tutorials and read the Kindlecreate help pages. Amazon supply a unique identifier which I went with. You can use your own isbn but if you are only using Amazon to distribute it's not really necessary.
You don't have to worry about putting page numbers in as the content is reflowable to be read in electronic format. I set my text up in word then saved to Kindlecreate. It's easy to review and amend and test what it looks like in phone/tablet/laptop mockup before you hit the publish button. You have to load the cover as a separate file - I used Canva as the Amazon programme is a bit amateur. I am now working on a book which I will also publish as a kindle. Ultimately I'd like to publish in print and I will use my own isbns/bar codes from Neilsens so it can be distributed in all shops. Print needs a little more thought though on layout/pagination/ spine/ backcover as well as sizing/ quality of paper/ink/binding. This all affects the pricing. The Lulu and Blurb websites have useful info but you can print on Amazon and distribute with your own isbn. I know how you feel. I felt totally overwhelmed by the process but once I had done a little research and actually published something it gave me confidence to focus on my book. My advice would be to try kindle first - you can simply delete it at any time if you wish..

If you're not intending using a publisher then I would recommend asking a friend to read your transcript for you. No matter how many times you read through it yourself, it's easy to miss a few things that could be improved in. Spelling, grammar, sentence structure and paragraphs are important.

I chose a publisher as they help with this. They are another pair of trained eyes and offer a few suggestions along the way. They have their own illustrators who worked with me to design the cover. Their fee also included setting up my ISBN, they provided me with copies of my book to help me promote it, and they arranged for it to be available worldwide in places I'd never heard of.

They explained to me that it's difficult to get books into the big bookshops like Waterstones, as literally thousands of authors want this all the time. So unless you've written a previous best seller, forget it and instead go along to local book shops, garden centres, craft shops, your local library, etc. Ask these places if you can arrange a book signing event.

Create a website, and use social media to get the word out. Books, especially downloads for Kindle, will start to take off.

I wish all budding authors the very best of luck.

I self published my debut novel using a self publishing company who I paid to edit and basically do the front cover and typesetting.

But basically having seen the finished product I could have done it myself - and just paid an independent editor instead. They did do a good job - I think I was probably a bit scared of the process, wouldn’t be as worried now. It was worth it for the editing - as previous poster said, no matter how many times you edit it yourself you always miss something.

I’d recommend Lulu and Amazon - both make it relatively easy to do yourself.

Wishing you the very best of luck - it’s an exciting process!

Anyone in the USA in this thread?
Please can any of you tell me who are the biggest greetings card companies there?
I know Hallmark. But who else?
I'm thinking of sending some drawings to see if they'll publish as cards.
Not self- publishing exactly, but hopefully still on the topic of the thread.

There's a list below. The one I've heard of beside Hallmark is American Greetings.

Hey, @Wackie Jeaver and anyone else interested. This is free on amazon kindle today. Not sure how good it is but it might be worth a look.

I'm currently c&p-ing all her fb posts to try and get some coherence, and decide how to divide it into chapters - themed I think. Easiest way seems to print it all out, cut them up and put them in piles!! (was it Edgar Rice Burroughs and David Bowie that did that?!) I've been doing it 3 and a half years and its interesting (to me at least!) to see how much my style has changed... fair amount of work to do. If my current contract comes to an end in July I'll crack on then, or if I get reduced hours - which seems a possibility - it will still give me a bit of time.

Thanks so much to everyone for hints, tips, experiences, questions etc.