Step by step

I am continuing to answer the questions that were asked during our recent survey. This week the question is:
What is the best sequence of events that have to happen to produce a widely successful book?

There can be no guarantee of success, but I will offer you a list of the things that could help you to produce a professional book that will give you a better chance of success.

Finish the book.

I know it’s obvious, but if you continue to rewrite and never publish, you will never have success.

Send the book to an editor.

As I have written on this blog before, if you have any money to spend on your book, give it to an editor; it will be worth it.

Assign ISBN numbers to your books.

Send the details to Nielsen, including the publishing date.

Get a cover

A good cover will project a positive image of a book; you don’t want something that looks bland, uninteresting or amateurish.

Write your blurb/description

Grab a potential reader’s attention with a well-written, concise blurb.

Format for e-readers.

When the book returns from your editor ensure that it is properly formatted for eBook distribution.

Typeset for print

If you are launching simultaneously a paperback as well as an eBook, now is the time to prepare the file.

Design a print cover

You will need a spine and back cover to add to the original artwork for the front cover. Include a barcode to help bookshop owners with cataloging.

Submit the book to your printer

When your manuscript and cover are ready, send it to your printer.

Submit it for eBook distribution

On your publishing date, send the book to the eBook distributors.

Have a launch party

Celebrate your achievement, have a party with family and friends, tell your local paper and you might get some publicity.

Market it, market it, market it

Marketing can be done at any time. Let the everyone know your book is coming and then keep telling them after it’s released. Try to use original methods to capture people’s attention..

That’s a very short summary of what you need to do to produce a professional, self-published book. The important thing to remember that producing your own work is a step-by-step process. If you break it down into simple pieces it becomes less daunting.

Our self-publishing training courses cover every aspect of the publishing process in more detail.

Have a great weekend and I’ll be back next week.

Print On Demand

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 the next few weeks I am going to respond to those questions through my blog. This week’s question is “How do I find an easy way to have books printed and distributed on a demand basis?”

Digital print on demand has revolutionised what is possible with self-published books. Low cost, short print runs now make it easy for anyone to produce high-quality books that don’t cost a fortune and don’t require you to buy and store a huge number of books.

There are a couple of simple routes to producing your own printed books. I printed my first three novels using an online company called CompletelyNovel.com. You can sign up with a monthly fee, and depending on the deal you opt for, you can have a certain number of titles produced with no setup fee. They also offer publishing services like typesetting for a reasonable extra cost. There are limitations, as there are only two sizes available and you are restricted with regards to choice of cover finish. It is a simple process, the folks at Completely Novel are very helpful and there is also a community of readers and writers associated with the site.

Amazon is now offering a similar service in the form of Createspace.com. There is a greater choice of sizes and cover finishes available and there are no set-up costs. It is a comprehensive service but there is a problem; as it is currently an American-based site, if you are an author in the U.K. you will have to pay shipping costs from the U.S. that will push up your expenditure on every book. It’s a great service and hopefully it will be offered in the U.K. before too long.

My route to print is now through Lightning Source. It offers a vast range of sizes, covers, papers and print styles that you can combine to produce the kind of book you want. There is an initial set up fee for each title, but it's reasonable at under fifty pounds. A 300-page standard paperback will cost you about £4 per copy to produce, leaving you a decent margin to sell the books directly to readers and make a good profit. I have been very impressed by the service and the quality of the finished product from Lightning Source.

The best advice I can give is for you to explore the websites in more detail and find the service that is best for you. As I do all of the technical work myself, Lighting Source offers me the service I need, but if you don’t have the technical know-how, you may find that one of the others are more appropriate. This area is developing at an incredible rate and I will do my best to keep you informed. 

We cover print-on-demand books in great detail in the Indie Authors Scotland Bookcamp training course.

How do I finance my self publishing project?

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 the next few weeks I am going to respond to those questions through my blog. This week’s question is "How do I finance my project?"

This is obviously a very personal question that will result in a different answer for each individual, but I will try and offer some suggestions that may help.

My first recommendation is to decide how much of the process you would like to take control of. There are many companies out there who will produce your eBook and paperback for you, but they tend to be expensive. If you have money available and don’t want to spend time producing the book yourself, that may be the best route for you. The downside is that you’ll be spending that amount of money every time you want to produce a book. Alternatively, the training we offer at Indie Authors Scotland will teach you as much of the process as you would like to learn. Not only do we offer a comprehensive course called the ‘Bookcamp’ but also shorter, more specialised courses that might be more suitable to your budget. (Well, I had to plug the course somehow.) :-)

During the production cycle, the single most important area to spend money on is an editor. If you are on a tight budget, an editor should be your first priority. A well-edited book will be the key to retaining readers and helping you to grow sales beyond your first book.

With the formatting skills you have learned in our course and a well-edited manuscript you will be ready to submit your book to Amazon for sale on the Kindle. If your budget can stretch a little more, then you should get a professionally designed cover. Although we shouldn’t, everyone judges a book by its cover. It may not generate sales on its own merits, but I guarantee that an amateurish cover will put off some people from even reading the blurb.

The majority of online marketing tools and social media are either free or very low cost. Using them well in combination with good reviews will hopefully begin to generate some income for you, which you might want to invest in producing a paperback or in more training. If things go well you will have a virtuous circle where what you earn is re-invested back into book production and then into more traditional marketing and advertising.

The priority in your budget should be:

1. Editor
2. Cover design
3. Paperback production
4. Marketing
5. Advertising

To learn more about our list of  ‘How to Self Publish’ courses, visit the Indie Authors Scotland website.

Comparing traditional publishing with self publishing

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 the next few weeks I am going to respond to those questions through my blog. Today our first question is "In your opinion, how is it "better" or more beneficial to self publish v traditional publishing?"

Rather than answer with my opinion about why it is better, I thought I would offer a comparison between the two.

At last year's World Book Night event at a local library, when I told a lady that I had self published my books, she said with a combination of pity and disdain, "Oh, you had to go that route." Her attitude is one that many people still cling to, but there are a growing number who realise that self-publishing is no longer about vanity or lack of talent.

Any writer who has tried to get an agent or publisher to even look at their manuscript will know how difficult it is. Publishers face a huge number of problems. Economic conditions are still difficult and that affects how much money and time a publisher can dedicate to promoting new talent. Like the music industry with MP3s, publishers have been slow to react and adapt to the rapid rise of digital books and all the changes that has brought to their existing business model. These changes mean they are more reluctant to take on new talent without guarantee of good financial return.

Despite these problems there are signs that the industry is beginning to change and realise the benefits of self-publishing. A new generation of authors is proving their worth by building a readership from their own self-published work. James Oswald signed a large deal with Penguin on the back of 350,000 sales of his self-published 'Inspector Tony McLean' novels. There are many other examples across the world of publishers adopting a similar approach.

Not everyone is going to be offered a lucrative deal on the back of their efforts in the world of self publishing. Many commentators, most of them authors with publishing contracts, say that self publishing will lead to a decline in the quality of writing. There may be some truth in the suggestion that there will be more poorly written books available, but I would counter by saying there will also be a far greater number of fabulous authors getting their work into the hands of readers: writers who may otherwise have gone unnoticed. The readers will be the ultimate arbiters of what constitutes a good book and the poorer work will eventually begin to wither on the vine.

One enormous difference between the two forms is where the control lies. As an independent author you have complete control of the publishing process, including when you publish, how your cover looks and how you promote it. This is something that brings both benefits and problems. Without a publisher, an author may prevaricate and never actually take the leap and publish their book. If you have no experience, designing a cover can end up with something that looks less than professional. Selling books can be difficult for someone who does not have a sales or marketing background. The flip side is that you decide when your book is available; you don’t need to fit into the publisher’s schedule. Your cover can reflect your vision of the book - I’ve seen many complaints from published authors who don’t like their own covers. Your marketing and sales are all about you, it’s your personality that will help to sell your work. The control that publishing your own work offers, I believe is the one major benefit.

Authors who self publish will only be taken seriously by ensuring that their work is produced to the most professional standards possible. Well-formatted and well-edited books that have well-crafted covers are the way to ensure that self-publishing loses its vanity tag. At Indie Authors Scotland we are striving to teach others the importance of professionalism.

Obviously traditional publishing gives the author a support network that helps them to get their books into the hands of the reading public. That is a huge advantage over being an independent author, and I’m sure I’m not alone in wishing that I had a team of people helping me to sell books. In Indie Authors Scotland, we are trying to address that deficit by providing support and encouragement to writers, while facilitating contact with people who can help in the form of editors, proofreaders and graphic artists.

I would never suggest that there is no place for traditional publishers, far from it. As a lover of the written word I am keen to see books in bookshops, produced in large numbers by a wide variety of authors. There is however plenty of scope for authors who self publish to take their place in the new industry and prove that publishing your own work is not about vanity but being an entrepreneur.

I hope that helps you to understand the differences between the two and the challenges that are faced by both independent authors and traditional publishers.

Deadline day

One of the differences between being a traditionally published author and an author who self publishes is that dreaded word ‘deadline’. There are both advantages and disadvantages to not having a deadline, but for independent authors we can be tempted to use the absence of a particular date as a reason to prevaricate and write yet another draft. It’s easier to hold on to a book than let it loose on the big bad world.

I thought today I would share with you a couple of tricks that might make you a little more disciplined and help you to focus on finishing your book.

Three and out

Discipline yourself to write only three drafts of your manuscript. Your book will never be perfect, and after three drafts, some of the spontaneity and creativity will be lost. That simple discipline will make you focus on the task and mean that you are less likely to wait years to publish your book.

Set your own deadline

It’s easy to let time slip away and you will always find reasons not to finish a book. Whether it is simply life getting in the way or concerns about how your book will be received, without a deadline, you are more likely to stop yourself from publishing.  Why not choose a date that is significant to you as your publishing date? Last year I published a book on my mother’s birthday. If you choose a date that means something to you in the year ahead, you can use it as a target. It’s amazing how many more words I can write in a day when I know that day is approaching.

These two simple techniques won’t turn you into a writing machine, but they will help you to set and meet goals and help you to publish your own books regularly.

For training and tips on how to self publish, pop over to Indie Authors Scotland.

Using symbols in Photoshop to create your cover -Part 2

In part two, I introduce masks and how to use shapes to create them. Click on the link to learn more.

1-02 Creating a mask using a symbol

For more information about our 'How to self publish' courses pop over to Indie Authors Scotland.

Five tips to help you produce a professional manuscript

The main and consistent theme of our ‘How to self publish’ courses is the importance of producing as professional a book as possible. That should begin with a professionally edited and proofread manuscript. Here are five tips to achieving that without having to spend a fortune.

1. Creative edit

Get someone you trust - a member of your family or maybe another writer - to read your manuscript to check that your story makes sense and has no gaps in it. If you are writing a non-fiction book, get someone who is an expert in the same field to do a similar check.

 2. Proofreading

Before sending it to your editor, check the book yourself for things you may have missed. Don’t use the computer you wrote it on, load it on to an e-reader or a tablet. If you don't have either of those devices then print it. It’s amazing how a different view can give you a new perspective.

 3. Get an editor

The one thing you must spend money on is a good editor. An editor is trained to look at text dispassionately and will find errors in spelling and grammar that you have missed. They have specialised skills and a good editor will help you to produce a professional book. Experienced editors may also offer help with the creative edit but make sure you specify what you expect from the editor you choose.

4. Get someone else to proofread it

It’s a good idea to let someone else see the book before you decide to publish it. There may still be one or two tiny little problems that can be identified by someone with a keen eye.

 5. Listen to the manuscript

Accessibility features are designed to help people with an impairment to get the most from their computer. There is a facility that allows those with visual impairments to listen to the content of the screen. I use this facility to do a final check of the book. By listening to it, your eye is no longer reading what you expect to read; another part of your brain is engaged and any errors become more obvious. Alternatively you could read it aloud but there is still the chance that you will read what you expect rather than what is actually written.

These tips may not completely eradicate every error - even books published by established companies can have little mistakes - but it will reduce them to a minimum. A well edited and proofread book can make a huge difference to how much enjoyment readers will get from your book.

You can learn more about our 'How to self publish' course at Indie Authors Scotland.

Of Widows, Orphans and Rivers Of White

During our ‘How to Self Publish’ courses, we stress to authors the importance of producing the most professional book they can. What we really mean is that paying attention to the small details can pay big dividends in terms of how seriously your work is regarded. In this week’s self-publishing blog, I am going to look at some of the small distractions that can affect print-on-demand books.

Widows and Orphans

 Widows and Orphans are terms that describe words or single sentences at the beginning or end of a paragraph, which are isolated at the top or bottom of a page, separated from the rest of the parent paragraph.

A widow is a single line from the previous paragraph that appears at the top of the next page.

An orphan is the first line of a paragraph that continues on the next page.

It is important to look for these simple problems before you submit your book for printing as they can have a jarring effect and interrupt the flow of the text for the reader.

Rivers of White

 A ‘river of white’ is caused when the gap between words occurs at approximately the same place in a line of text for a number of lines consecutively within a paragraph. While someone is reading, that river effect will catch his or her eye, even if it is on a facing page. You will find that these ‘rivers’ do appear in many books but it is a good idea to minimise them, particularly if the gap occurs for seven or eight lines in a row.

All of these problems can be solved using various techniques including making small adjustments to kerning. During our course we give you a more comprehensive description of these minor issues and the techniques you can use to remove them.

By paying attention to even the smallest details, you can produce a book that is professional and will remove all distractions to allow people to enjoy what you have written.