VIDEO: Learn How to Publish Your Own Book with Indie Publishing; Self-Publishing–Author Retains 100% Creativity, Rights & Royalties
By Deborah S. Nelson, Author-Book Coach-Speaker
The self-publishing option. So, you want to learn how to publish a book yourself? For many, publishing a book is one of the most unforgettable and exhilarating moments of their lives. Luckily, you have landed on Publishing SOLO Magazine, which diliegently covers do-it-yourself publishing and offers readers honest, practical self-publishing info! So, if you want to learn how to self-publish a book, read on!
Table of Contents
- How to Publish Your Own Book with Print on Demand
- VIP Self-Publishing Services & Resources
- Basic Steps of How to Publish a Book
- Self-Publish a Book with Independent Publishing
- Intent to Publish Agreement
- Can Anyone Learn How to Publish a Book?
- Self-Publishing vs Traditional Book Publishing
- Advantages of Self-Publishing Your Book with Independent Publishing
- Steps for How to Publish a Book Yourself
- Write Your Book: Step 1
- Step 2: How to Self-Publish Your Own Book
- Step 3: How to Self-Publish a Book
- How Much Does it Cost to Self-Publish a Book?
- What are the Steps to Self-Publish a Book?
- What are the Benefits of Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing?
- What is a Self-Publishing Coach?
VIP Self-Publishing Services & Resources
As an editorial, production, and permissions admin in a publishing house, I learned the intricacies of traditional publishing. That, plus my experience as an independent publisher prepared me for my role as a self-publishing coach. I spearheaded the quality publishing of more than 100 books. As an Indie Publishing Coach, I teach how to publish your own books; and how to become your own publisher. I am not a publisher, but I skillfully lead, guide, and coach clients how to publish a book—professionally and independently.
Most importantly with me as your coach, you always retain 100% of your rights and royalties. Our self-publishing services and resources pricing starts at Free for the Self-Publishing Toolkit and Mini-Book Coaching.
Full VIP service fees start at $5,000 for ghostwriting or ghost publishing for executives and influencers. We offer personalized, professional quality, “done-for-you” self-publishing services. Meanwhile, feel free to explore hundreds of “how to” articles about this brave new world of independent book publishing—for free!
Basic Steps of How to Publish a Book
By educating yourself, you can prevent the costly pitfalls, errors, and expenses of self-publishing a book. This article and video reveals the basic steps of how to publish a book and prevent the costly pitfalls of self-publishing a book. For me, publishing a book is one of the most significant events of my life. Bare in mind, publishing a book is a life event such as raising a child, getting married, and graduating from college!
Celebs & Execs Require Full VIP Services
Self-Publish a Book with the
Magic of Ghostwriting and
Independent Publishing
With 30 years experience in publishing and printing industries, I have done the grunt work for you. Moreover, I have made all the mistakes in DIY Publishing (do-it-yourself publishing) possible! If you are a rising entrepreneur, celebrity, or influencer, the ingenius blend of ghostwriting and independent publishing is for you! Indeed, my passion is to push your book to the finishing line as pain-free as possible. Indeed, learning how to publish a book is an art and a science. I reveal the preliminary DIY publishing steps for how to self-publish a book. Similarly, this online magazine offers DIY publishing tools, tips, books, and resources. Now, you too can feel the exhilaration of publishing a book and becoming a published author.
Experience the exhilaration of BOOK COACHING during a trial session with Deborah S. Nelson. Click to schedule a complimentary 1/2 hour—available Tuesdays & Thursdays from 12p.m.-6p.m. EST.
Sign an Intent to Self-Publish a Book Agreement
Intent to Publish Agreement
Are you ready to start? Ideally, you are ready to take a leap of faith and make the commitment to publish your book. If so, sign the Intent to Publish Agreement with yourself. Once you do that, even if you aren’t ready … continue reading this article to start—as this website covers all the frequently asked self-publishing questions and more!
Learn How to Self-Publish Your Book with Publishing Solo
Can Anyone Learn How to
Publish a Book?
You may wonder, “Will this article teach me how to publish my own book?” Yes! By detailing 4 steps of how to self-publish your own book, this article will prepare you for self-publishing success. So, as the basis for self publishing success, I advise you make your own book using the on-demand book printing method. The alternatives are short-run printing or getting published by a traditional publishing company.
If you want to know how to publish a book through a traditional publishing house, this article is not for you—it covers DIY publishing basics. I have worked both inside a publishing house and with print on demand. The book publishing industry has moved to digital publishing, and great options are found in self-publishing.
Book publishing is not an easy skill to learn. With the help of a good book publishing coach, course, or materials you can do it.
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How to Self-Publish: Self-Publishing a Book on Amazon
Self-Publishing Versus
Traditional Book Publishing
Rightly, it takes time, talent, and dedication to publish your own book through a major publishing house. The best situation for being published by a publishing house is if you are financially independent with time on your hands. If you are not in this state, I advise printing your book through one of the many self-publishing companies who use print-on-demand. Since print-on-demand is fast, cheap book printing; it hardly seems worth the long process of submitting a manuscript to a traditional publishing company. Ultimately, with DIY publishing (do-it-yourself publishing) you can publish a book in a few months. Of course.the timeline depends on how long the is; and if you intend to sell it or not.
Advantages of Self-Publishing Your Book with Independent Publishing
When considering that booksellers only garnered a 19% share of book sales in 2012 (Publisher’s Weekly); this show that most books are purchased online. Also, traditional publishing houses primarily market most of their books through bookstores, and bookstore’s market segment has shrunkl. One of the major bookstore chains (Borders Bookstores) went bankrupt in 2011, and the other major book store chain may follow.
Keep in mind, traditional book publishing companies are struggling and merging these days. Using the print on demand method to self-publish your own book will save you time, money, and frustration. You will eleminate dealing with the corporate world of a publishing house—and make it possible to for you to make your own book! I have outlined four preliminary steps which insturct you how to self-publish a book successfully.
Steps for How to Publish a Book Yourself
Step 1: Write Your Book
Publishing SOLO, an Award-winning Website Guides Writers through Self-Publishing Steps
Obviously, before publishing a book, the first thing to do is to write the book. It does not have to be perfect! Editors and proofreaders will polish it once you enter the publishing process. In this article, I do not teach how to write a book. As a publishing coach, my specialty is teaching writers how to publish a book—how to publish a novel, non-fiction book, or how to publish a children’s book; and how to publish a cookbook. I teach my clients—the 3 stages to the completion of a book. They include writing the book, publishing a book and lastly, marketing the book. In other articles, I teach how to write, as well as how to self-edit your book to save thousands of dollars. Go to 10 Self-Editing Tips for a Smoothly Written Ride to learn this handy skill quickly.
.The Process of Writing and Self-Publishing a Book
Before embarking on learning how to publish a book, I suggest you first write your own book. Indeed, resources are available to instruct you on how to write a book, including local writer’s groups, and books on how to write a book! In addition, I personally, have written many articles and produced many videos with tips, tricks and writing hacks for how to write a book. First, educate yourself with theses resources. Secondly, prepare your manuscript for digital publishing, by transfering your manuscript to a Word document.
After Writing, Editing
Once you complete the writing, you will need to consider the editing tasks. Hire a professional or ask a friend with editing skills to edit it, or wait a month or two, then pick it up and edit yourself. Of course, this all depends on your budget and editing skill level. The three stages of editing are content edit, copy-edit, and proofreading. You may hire three separate specialists for this, or perhaps one can do it all, but be sure to cover all three areas of editing. (See our “Definition of Publishing Terms,” which members receive after joining this site). Notably, do not skimp on this no matter how tight your budget. Hire a professional proofreader to correct your writing; because after spending so much time writing it, you become immune to errors.
Once you enter the publishing process, stop the writing! Next, the second part of the first step of how to publish a book is to create the front and back matter. Notably, this includes the preface, introduction, table of contents, dedication, index, end notes, and many other parts that go into publishing a book. To learn more about what to include in the front and back matter you may refer to the Book Blueprint, by Deborah S. Nelson.
Step 2: How to Self-Publish Your Own Book
Intent to Publish Agreement: Normally, once a publisher accepts your manuscript for publication; a signed agreement is done. Therefore, once you decide to publish a book, an agreement with yourself is a mighty step to propel you through the self-publishing process. This is DIY publishing at its best! Do not take this step lightly. Write and sign an Intent to Publish Agreement. You may get the original Intent to Publish Agreement created for her clients by Self-Publishing Coach Deborah S. Nelson here:
If you want to succeed in self-publishing your own book, make an agreement with yourself that no matter what, you will publish your own book by a given date. The good thing about self-publishing is that you do not have a corporate publisher breathing down your neck; the bad thing about self-publishing is that you don’t have a corporate publisher breathing down your neck. As a result, two destructive things can easily set in… procrastination or perfectionism. Both can cause a failure to launch… and publish. It is very important that you make an agreement with yourself and at least one trusted witness. that you will finish your self-publishing project by a certain (realistic) date.
Why Your Self-Publish, Keep Your Vision Focused
Most of us have heard, “Too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth!” This is even more true with self-publishing a book. It is easy to make changes when self-publishing; and everyone that you are sharing with may tend the think of themselves as an expert. I have seen a few DIY publishing projects foiled, unnecessarily delayed, or creative flow spoiled by the confusion of too many family or friend “expert opinions.” However, this is not a problem in traditional publishing because the publisher makes the decisions. Therefore, one advantage to self-publishing your own book is that you have creative control. Indeed, there is a flip side to this. In Step 3, we give you the solution to this potential unprofessional situation that too often happens when publishing a book yourself.
Step 3: How to Self-Publish a Book
Focus Groups: If you want to self-publish a professional book, resist the temptation to ask opinions about your book while in process.
“Everyone’s an expert,” it seems, and this situation has ruined many book projects; and even doomed completion. While it is tempting to seek others’ opinions, and validation when going through the process of publishing a book–resist! Certainly, you want avoid the potential nightmare of well-meaning but overly critical friends and family. Truth is, you can become easily confused and upset by contradicting opinions and proclamations about your book. Indeed, immobilization and procrastination can easily result.
When you Self-Publish, Control the Well-Meaning Advice
For example, learn a strategy to handle this typical self-publishing dilemma. Prior to the editing of your manuscript, bring together a selected “focus group” of trusted friends, family, and associates. In addition, be sure these people are supportive of you and your growth, and genuinely want your success.
Share your manuscript draft with them, stating that it will go through final editing and proofreading later. Given them a few days to review and return their input. Let them know if you do not hear from them within a week, you will go ahead without their input. Let them know that you will take their input from the focus group meeting going forward. However, after that, the book will be in the publishing process and cannot be changed until final proofreading time. Although this meeting will not directly impact your publishing, it is part of learning how to publish a book yourself. Consequently, If someone later offers unwelcome advise, tell them you plan to invite them to the next focus group. This is the time and place where all input is duly considered in its proper timing.
FREE SELF-PUBLISHING TOOLKIT
How Much Does it Cost to Self-Publish a Book?
In reality, the cost to self-publish a book varies. In 10 years as a self-publishing coach, I have seen many unique approaches. Although less expensive to publish a book yourself than with traditional publishing, the self-publishing budget is affected by the following factors:
- Book physical requirements like color/black & white, # of pages.
- How much technical work author/publisher will do themselves.
- Cost to hire services like editing, proofreading, book cover design.
- Flow & timing of book project in wrong chronological order is costly.
- Adding on other publishing venues such as Kindle, and Audible, etc.
To conclude, a general range is from “free” (hours of time); to $15,000. The lower end includes massive sweat equity. Notably, the upper end includes a Kindle version, paperback version, and audiobook, as well. In addition, the upper end includes full-service ghost publishing and/or ghostwriting.
For details, read the articles: Self-Publishing Frequently Asked Questions and Real Self-Publish Costs of Self-Publishing a Book
What are the Steps to Self-Publish a Book?
To simplify, see the five basic self-publishing steps listed below:
- Book Structure. Add title pages, dedication, preface, foreword, and more. Decide on the pieces for front and back matter, and order them.
- Book Cover: Hire a book cover designer to create your book cover. Sales depend on a well-crafted book cover done by a specialist.
- Book Interior: Design should harmonized with cover, create chapter heads, page numbers, headings, organizing all the front and back matter.
- Create Title: Includes ISBN number, copyright registration, and legal technicalities. Upload book cover and interior files to print.
- Select Distribution Channels: Includes online distribution, or Books in Print listing, along plus creating a Publisher Brand.
For more details, see our article on FAQ Self-Publishing Frequently Asked Questions and Becoming a Publisher in 7 Strategic Steps
What are the Benefits of Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing?
Consider these positives to self-publishing versus traditional publishing. However, the answer to this question depends on a few factors listed here:
- Avoid Rejection: If you have not published before, avoid the long rejection process with old-school publishing. Talented writers are rejected in favor of celeb and famous authors by traditional publishing companies who are hedging their financial bets.
- Creative Control. Let your creativity go wild when you self-publish.
- Get Published Fast. Publish a book in as little as 2-3 months once your manuscript is ready. Of course, this includes content editing, front and back matter.
Finally, for more details see the article Brave New World of Digital Publishing and Frequently Asked Self-Publishing Questions
What is a Self-Publishing Coach?
As an example, imagine a book publishing coach as similar to a general contractor who builds a home. Also, consider a book project requires a full-time effort for months or years, depending on the scope of the project. Therefore, a good publishing coach will save a writer more money than they will spend on their own. Plus, you will have an expert on the job and can focus on other creativity factors.
All in all, your book coach coordinates, schedules, and budgets services and activities to build a published book. However, most people cannot do these technical tasks, so they turn to specialists. Yet, often they hire novice workers, which can become an overpriced nightmare. Lastly, always consider, You do not know what you do not know!
RELATED ARTICLE: Benefits of Self-Publishing a Book
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