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Beginner’s Guide: 15 Steps to Self Publishing

ltbooks

I am certainly in no way an expert on self publishing.  This was my first attempt at it, and in order to get my book where it is now I had to do a bunch of research and reading to figure out what to do. I messed up a lot along the way, too. I hope these steps help you to figure things out a little faster than I did!  I also found all the information to help me on blogs, in the Createspace forum, in videos, and in other articles about self publishing.  Thanks to all of you that offered your advice to me.  It was so helpful.  I hope at least one thing below will help you on your way.

  1. I’m assuming that you have already written your story and completed or hired someone to do your illustrations.  When I was ready to start putting together my book. I ended up taking my illustrations to a document imaging center where they were scanned professionally. I would recommend this.  I know some people take pictures themselves, so if you feel comfortable with that, go for it!  My illustrations were large and I wanted to make sure the resolution was good. Going to a professional worked for me.  It wasn’t expensive, either.
  2. Buy 10 ISBN numbers from Bowker.  Here is the site:  Bowker ISBN. It may seem like it is expensive, but buying one is $100 and buying the 10 is $300.  You will need one for each version of your book (hardcover, paperback, and ebook), so it just makes sense to buy all of them.  If you plan to publish more books later, then you will have them already which is great! Set up your MyIdentifiers page with Bowker first, because you will need to enter this information when you publish your book.
  3. Choose your Print on Demand publisher.  I chose Ingramspark because they print hardcover books, which I needed for a children’s book.  I also read it is helpful to print with Createspace, too.  Basically, Ingramspark is able to distribute to brick and mortar stores like Barnes & Noble and libraries.  Createspace will put your book on Amazon.  For most self publishers, both are important.  I found success with both.  In another post, I will do a side by side comparison if that’s helpful.
  4. Set up all of the information on each site.  I set up  my information for Ingram first.  It wasn’t hard, just a little time consuming.  You can change most of the information later on if you have to, so don’t go crazy at first like I kind of did! Ingram will ask you to set a wholesale discount for booksellers.  55% is standard.  I set mine at 45% and my book was put on Barnes & Noble.  I tried to set my prices as low as I could to still make a little profit and to be comparable to other titles.  I figured it would be okay if I don’t make money at first. I hope if I sell a bunch at a lower price it will work out in the long run!  On Ingram you can set your On Sale date earlier than your publishing date to allow for preorders.  I did this.  Not sure if it will work out to help me, but it is nice to have that option. I set my On Sale date one month before my publication date.
  5. Sign up for Adobe InDesign.  Please don’t be intimidated by the program.  It was actually pretty fun to use, and the end result is what you are looking for if you want to have a book that can complete professionally with other titles.  It is a little expensive, about $30 a month. I had my images ready to upload and then only signed up when I was ready to make the book.  That way I really only needed it for about two months.
  6. Use the cover template generator on Ingramspark.  Cover Template Generator I found this really easy to use.  You can put text on the spine of your 32 page + picture book.
  7. If you use Createspace, use their cover generator as well.  Createspace Cover Template. When you create your document in InDesign double check that your setup is in inches.  Mine wasn’t, and I ended up sending them a teeny weeny cover.  Long story short, it took me a while to figure out my mistake. You will save the template on your desktop and then Place it into InDesign as you would an image.  Click place, make your rectangle box, and then place in the template.  Then you can start building your cover on top of it using the directions.  I did not delete the template layer, I just put my cover on top.  This worked out fine!
  8. To create the interior on Ingram use the information in the link below.  There is a lot of information, but everything you need to know is there. My book has a trim size (this is the term for the size of your book) of 8 x 10 and was done in portrait format.  I set the bleed at .125 inches for the top, bottom and outside.  Make sure the middle is set to 0. The slug is set to 0.  Feel free to use these measurements if they work for you. You can find all the information you need in the  Ingramspark File Creation Guide
  9. Place artwork in the interior file.  If you have never used InDesign, you can not copy and paste. You will have to create a rectangle and then click Place to upload a saved illustration into your document.  If the illustration is too large, click on it and zoom out until you see the outer outline of the illustration.  Then make it smaller to fit into your document. The only other issue I had was little red crosses (overset text) showing up if I left extra unwanted text in a text box or the font was too big for a text box.  Don’t worry if you see this.  Just check each text box and adjust the text until the red crosses go away.
  10. For the Createspace interior, I used the same file/setup as my Ingram interior. When you are ready, export your document to PDF.  The guidelines are in the file creation guide, but here are the basics.  Choose PDF/X-1a:2001. For Marks and Bleeds choose to use document settings.  Leave printer marks unchecked. For Ingram you have to convert to CMYK (Under Output) if your images are in RGB.  My images were in RGB because I had scanned my illustrations and they were JPEG images.  Doing the conversion was simple, and my colors looked pretty good at the end of it all.  Don’t worry too much about the color quality until you see it! It will be okay!  Do this and make sure to click preserve numbers. You can print in RGB with Createspace so you will have to change this setting on both when you export to each.  Export.  Make sure you aren’t silly like me, by trying to open the file on Createspace before it is done exporting.  Just give it time and then it will be ready!
  11. When you submit your files for review, both Ingram and Createspace will show you a digital proof.  On Createspace, the digital reviewer kept saying that there were issues.  If you can’t figure out what they are, just bypass the interior reviewer.  It will typically take about 24 hours to get your work reviewed. Then they will tell you if your title was approved. You can order a physical proof on Createspace, and Ingram will give you the option of ordering a copy of your book before it is released.  Getting the proof was seriously so exciting!  It did take me a couple of times to get it right, but finally seeing the book was amazing!
  12. Look at your digital proofs.  I ordered physical ones and you should, too.  It was much easier for me to notice issues when looking at the real book.  Also, one of my proofs had a manufacturing printer errors.  (The colors weren’t lined up correctly).  Definitely call if you notice this.  Createspace sent me another copy after that happened.
  13. Call support if you need help or have questions!   I found the support people at both Ingram and Createspace to be helpful, but Ingram does keep you on hold for a bit!
  14. When you are happy with your proof, click enable for distribution on Ingram in your Title Information.  Might seem like a no brainer, but I didn’t do this at first until I called and asked what the next steps were.  Createspace has the information to distribute right there, so click and within days, your book should appear online!
  15. Self Promote!   Donate books, use social media, throw a launch party.  Let me know how all that goes!  I’m currently on this step now, so I’ll let you know, too…

So that’s about it.  I am sure I missed some things, but hopefully some of this will be useful to you.  Again, this was my first time self publishing, so I’m sure there are so many of you out there with more tips and useful hints.  Please comment and post them!  Also, please comment if there is something I mentioned that you would like me to explain more.  I so completely appreciate all of you that took your time to blog and write to help me as I figured this stuff out.  I am so happy to share what I have learned so far!  Hope this helps! Have fun and good luck!

Don’t be afraid to self publish. If I can do it, anyone can!

ltbooks

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my very first post.  If you are here, you are probably considering self publishing.  I hope you will!  It has been a long journey for me, and I am so excited to finally be able to get my book out there.  Every step of the way I had to read and learn what to do, and I hope some of what I learned will be useful to you.  I certainly don’t know much as a first time self publisher, but I have some beginner tips that might save you some of the headaches I experienced along the way.

First of all, DEFINITELY GO FOR IT!  You can absolutely do it, and it will be so rewarding when that first proof arrives, and you can hold onto that book for the first time.  I won’t ever forget taking my proof out of the mailbox and ripping open the cardboard to see it for the first time.  It took me a really long time to get to that moment when that proof arrived.  At the top of the page is the first illustration I completed for my book.  I wrote the first draft eleven years ago and created this illustration.  Over the next eleven years I completed my illustrations, submitted to publishers, got rejected by publishers, and thought about the book almost every day. Still, I let my book fall into the background as my job and life’s other fun things took over: marriage, my two girls, buying our first house.

Pretty soon eleven years had passed and I had a manuscript, 15 illustrations, and a dream with a lot of dust on it.  My daughter was looking at the pictures one day, and in her six year old, sassy way said, “Oh yeah, that’s that book that you never finished.”  I decided that I had to publish it.  I couldn’t let my daughters think that it was okay to start something so important and not complete it.

Self publishing seemed like my only option, but I was more than a little nervous about going that route.  Would people take me seriously?  Could I learn to use the book publishing software?  Would my book look terrible if I made it myself?  I have to admit that fear almost took over, but the fear that my daughters would think it was okay to give up on a dream without a little fight won out.  I decided I would give it a try.

It took me eleven years to finally come to the conclusion that self publishing was for me.  Once I made that decision, it took me two months to finish my book and get it out there.  Believe me, if I can do it, you can too!   Put those old rejection letters away and get started creating your book yourself.  You will be so happy you did!

Well, that’s all for now.  I am going to go and attempt to get my two year old (and myself) back to sleep. At least her recent bout of toddler insomnia has inspired me to start blogging at 2 am,  Check out my next post for some simple steps to self publishing. I hope you feel a little inspired to get started!