Comments on: Quick Guide to Self-Publishing

By: Lise Mayne

Lise Mayne — Sun, 11 Dec 2016 18:32:21 +0000

This is a true reflection of the self-publishing journey. It too had many rejections, and finally, after a health crisis, decided that I would self-publish so I could see my book in print in my lifetime and leave it as a legacy for my daughter. I am so glad I did. It was a big investment, but the benefits outweighed the expenses, in terms of joy, satisfaction and connections with wonderful people who supported my work. As much as you put into the project, that is what the project will give back to you, I believe. You must be prepared to market and sell your book, track your sales, keep accounts, travel, hire a publicist, etc. Now, as I approach the completion of my second novel, I am hesitant to begin this process again. I will try once more to find a publisher, yet I know that even if I do, much of the marketing will fall on my shoulders. Books today do not fly off the shelves, nor sell themselves through the internet. Every sale is a victory and a connection with a new reader. I read somewhere that you should not publish your first book until your second is done, to keep the momentum of your readership. I wish that would have been possible, but I couldn’t wait any longer. Fortunately, I have lived to retire, write poetry, and another book. It’s my passion. Self-published or not, it’s an honour to share our words with others.

By: Laini Giles

Laini Giles — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 13:14:47 +0000

I’m where you are. Finally got to 176 rejections and said, “Forget it. I’m done. There’s a market for what I do, and I’m self-publishing.”

So I did. My books are all about the silent and early sound era of movies. My first marketing stop was to a big silent film fest in Hollywood. Dream big, I say.

I saved the last of the stock options from my job and had a killer cover made (and told them to make it duplicatable, so I can tweak the colors, main pic, and titles). The inside is JUST as beautiful. I actually fooled an ex editor from Harper Collins, who couldn’t tell it was self published.

Splurge for as GOOD a cover as you can afford. Take out a loan if you can afford it. Because every time you put out a cheap, badly designed one, you not only scream “self-published”, but you continue to affect the rest of us. That’s part of the reason why people won’t buy self-published books, because many of the covers are so horrendous. Like it or not, people DO judge books by their covers!

In Canada, we’re lucky because we can get free ISBNs from the government. I did that instead of using Createspace’s, and I created my own publishing company name. All Createspace does is print these for me. I also did Ingramspark so I could get into bookstores. Bookstores can order from Imgram so get copies rather than me having to ship consignment copies to them, which gets ruinously expensive.

By: Kate Evans

Kate Evans — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 08:21:58 +0000

In reply to Anna Castle. Hi Anna, sorry for the tardy reply, I've been off-line for a week as I walked St Cuthbert's Way, Melrose to Lindisfarne, very nourishing. Kindle/Createspace is always updating, so what I wrote several months back may not be true now. However, the errant coding for me came in with words which had accents on, such as café, and I have seen this in traditionally published books too. But you're right, it is more often weird spacing. Apparently the spacing on my book looks different depending on what device you look at it on. Thanks again for your interest and good luck with your recovery.

By: Anna Castle

Anna Castle — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 13:44:42 +0000

Great post, thank you!
I’m curious about the “errant coding” you’ve found in digital books here and there. What does that mean? Are you talking about stray whitespace, paragraph breaks where they shouldn’t be, that sort of thing? I’ve seen poor page breaking, especially when authors insist on using special graphics for eg scene breaks, but never anything I would characterize as “coding.” But like many recovering programmers, perhaps I’m splitting hairs.
Still, I’m wondering what I might be missing.
Thanks again!!

By: Kate Evans

Kate Evans — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 16:11:15 +0000

In reply to Ondiswa. Thanks for your comment Ondiswa. I think mutual support is the key, even if it is only to have someone to moan to! Good luck with everything.

By: Ondiswa

Ondiswa — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 09:58:02 +0000

thanks Kate
we are all in the same boat. the marketing hat is the most heavy for me.

By: Kate Evans

Kate Evans — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 09:12:51 +0000

In reply to Diana Jackson. Thanks Diana for your comment and encouragement. Yes, absolutely, I registered with Nielsons when I got my ISBNs, it's how I would receive orders from bookshops. Also had to fill in an extra form through Gardners in order to receive orders from Waterstones. Long learning curve!

By: Diana Jackson

Diana Jackson — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 07:44:13 +0000

Sites like this are excellent to give mutual support. I stumbled on the same route as yourself quite by chance but do a print run too. Have you registered with Nielsons Book Data? Best of luck with your venture into writing Kate.

By: Kate Evans

Kate Evans — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 08:12:13 +0000

In reply to Kirsty. Thank you Kirsty for your comment and good luck with your writing & publishing adventure.

By: Kate Evans

Kate Evans — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 08:11:36 +0000

In reply to Debby Carroll. Thank you Debby for your comment and for your information. I think it important we keep sharing our discoveries as much as we can. Good luck with everything.