The first step to publishing your own book

Recently, Indie Authors Scotland ran a survey to establish what people think about self-publishing. As part of the survey, the respondents were given the opportunity to ask questions of Kim and I. For week two, I’m going to try to answer the tricky question of ‘Where do I Start?”

The obvious and slightly glib answer is to finish what you are writing. In a previous blog, I’ve written about the ways that writers prevaricate and prevent themselves from taking the next step.

That next step is to GET AN EDITOR. I cannot overstate the importance of producing a book that is well edited and proofread. The simple truth is that books from independent authors are judged more harshly than those from big publishers. There is still a bias against people who don’t have a publisher, despite the success that some independent authors have enjoyed. Readers almost want to find an error, just to prove that independent books can’t possibly be as good. I have read many books from large publishing houses that have typos or words that have been misspelled, but I would never think of reviewing it on that basis. If the book is self-published, a typo or grammatical error gives some readers justification to knock one or two stars off the review score. It’s a strange phenomenon that I hope will disappear over time, but it is something you have to be aware of.

My simple message to you is if you have a limited budget to produce your book, the one area you must spend the money on is editing. Next week I’ll look take a closer look at the costs associated with producing your book and explain how it’s maybe not as expensive as you may think.

You can get a 'Top Ten Tips For Self Publishing Success' free ebook and learn more about our ‘How to self publish’ courses on the Indie Authors Scotland website.