Have you ever wanted to write and publish a book but were daunted by the process? This guide will explain the process to create, typeset, and hyperlink your book to submit it for self-publishing. Over time I will enhance this with any further tips I learn along the way.
Publisher vs Self Publishing
Why not just get my book published by a traditional publishers? Indeed, this can be a great choice, but I recommend that you should first, set your sights on self-publishing until you feel ready to contend with this.
I say this because my dad wrote a wonderful book, “Walking Miracle.” The publishing company accepted his book and we were thrilled. Then the editor sliced and diced the book to pieces, removing much of the heart and humor. It was crushing. Then they created an amateur cover for the book utilizing a picture that had been used on another book by that publisher (It was pictures of children from a different continent than the ones written about in the book.) The result was well received, yet not as enjoyable a read as the original.
The publisher gave us a great deal. 15%!!! How wonderful. Usually, an author has to have at least 2 books to their name to get that kind of percentage. Then, year after year, miniscule amounts of money came in. Why? We knew that many books were selling off the shelves. The reason is that the book prints for around $4.5 and they sell each book for about $5 and after the seller takes a cut, there is barely anything left for the author. Our conclusion is that the author needs to add a clause in the contract that the book will not sell less than a certain amount, such as $10.
Then my mom wrote a book, “The Sea Gypsies and the Tsunami.” Because of our previous experiences, we chose to self-publish. This was before Print-On-Demand was affordable or commonplace. So, we had a friend create the layout, send it to Malaysia to be printed and then many hundreds of books posted to America. The result was extremely disappointing. It was a children’s book but the font was merely 10pt. We now (like many self-publishers before us) have hundreds of books sitting around our house and the sales are slow because the final product didn’t look quite professional enough.
After these encounters I decided to self-publish my first novel “Missionary Kid Chronicles: Rescue”, at least in the beginning. Later on, once my trilogy is completed, I will find an agent who will help me to find a more acceptable deal. In the meantime, I have the opportunity to hone my craft and perfect my art. This also gives me time to talk to other authors and research companies that I might want to publish with.
Using the steps listed in the following pages, I was able to self-publish my first novel. Several friends and family read it through and found errors, inconsistencies and other improvements. I printed it and sold a few. Several readers were thrilled with the book, yet, even so, they found even more errors and items to change. One reader offered to create new maps for the beginning and others found missed mistakes. This process has improved my book up to version 1.3 and I am still enhancing it. The best part is that if I make enough substantial changes (beyond decisions about commas) then I can instantly upload the changes so that all future readers who purchase my book can get the latest version. AND anyone with a digital version will have instant access to that as well.
I published digitally and print-on-demand 1 year ago. So far, I have printed 160 books with Createspace and sold them for around $10 each to people I’ve met who are interested. I usually sell the most when I’ve been invited to teach at churches ($600 profit). About a third of these were gifts. (I use them like business cards and also to get them hooked so that they will buy my future books.) 5 books have sold on Amazon ($22.50 profit). I’ve sold 24 on Smashwords (Full and Sample Downloads: 135) ($21.00 profit) (Total= $643.50)
So in one year, I made over $600. It’s not like I can live off that, but I know it will grow, especially as I finish the rest of my trilogy. By comparison, “Walking Miracle” brings in about $40 a year from YWAM Publishing and when my dad orders his book and sells them when he teaches he gets the same profit because he uses his publisher as if it were Print-On-Demand. He teaches more frequently so I expect he sells more and makes more each year than I do.
What this means is that Marketing is important. The better you market, the more you will have sales. If you find a publisher that isn’t marketing your book, then basically, it’s like you have Print-On-Demand, but they control all your content (And it can’t easily be enhanced when you get great feedback.)
Word Processors
There are lots of word processing options for writing but the simplest approach is to use MS Office (It may create some problems later on, though.) The main reason to use Office is because Smashwords digital publishing expects you to send them a MS WORD DOC file.
Digital companies and Print on Demand
There are quite a few companies out there to choose from, but after talking to other authors and trying it out myself I decided to take this path and am thrilled with the results.
- For my digital ebooks – released on multiple websites like Amazon and Barns and Noble- I chose Smashwords.
- For my Print on Demand books I prefer to use Createspace.
- Another company to give consideration to is Accurance.
Before you Begin: Tabs and Page Breaks
Before you start writing you should make yourself aware of the format publishers are expecting. For each new paragraph, forget tabs, they are now a thing of the past, and definitely forget adding spaces. When your project is done there will be no tabs and hardly any extra spaces, if any. Either you, or a typesetter is going to have to purge them.
If you are using MS Word, you need to familiarize yourself with “Styles”. It’s painful and awkward to learn, but the sooner you do, the sooner you can get on with writing and not worry about it anymore. Once set up, you will find styles save you time and, more importantly, will ensure that your book is formatted consistently throughout. If you need to slightly change a style (like chapter heading size) then, instantly, it will change throughout your book.
If you are fortunate to have a friend who has already set up a blank document with all the typesetting styles defined then that is easiest. I tried using the default Createspace blank typeset document and found it to be of minimal value and had to make a great many changes.
Once your paragraph types are set, then, as soon as you press enter, it is going to go to the next line and tab you over automatically. Also, remember to add only one space between sentences and not two. The word has changed if you learned it that way.
Headings
As you add new chapters, you will want to consistently use Heading 1 or 2. Smashwords is expecting it and may not recognize other header types you may create. If you do create a new header type, then base it’s style off of the heading style you want to copy. If you need to change its appearance, such as inserting a page break before each new chapter, then all the chapter headings will be automatically adjusted. Also, consider having an image above the chapter heading (With it’s own style), (Careful if Heading 1 has auto page breaks.)
The first sentence of every chapter should look unique. At the very least, create a paragraph style based on the style used for the rest of the book. Then remove the indent. Also, consider doing something special with the first character or first word. Maybe make it bold or large sized.
Submitting for Review
Sometimes your book won’t look the same once it has converted which is why you have to review it later.
Once your book is nearly ready (Congratulations!), I recommend that you work on formatting your print book first before your digital one. You’ll typically want to release your digital book first, but you should take your data from your print version and paste it into your digital book template.
The print version will require that you format your book in various ways. You will need to adjust the size, margins, headers, etc… Please read the style guide of each company for specific details. Once that is done, you will want to create a digital version without all of those kinds of restraints.
Your ebook will not have any page numbers, the Table of Contents cannot be auto-generated, etc. See below for help generating your book with Smashwords and Createspace.
Createspace
You may upload your book in various formats, but optimally, you should upload PDF’s. Even this is not foolproof.
Before you begin, don’t forget to redo your automatic index to reset the page numbers. (Do not tinker with the index with your digital ebook version)
Typically your book will have different sections. These sections control things like page numbers and how the header and footer appear (For instance, typically you won’t want to put your name, the book name or page 1 on the cover page. This is what sections are for.
But, if you go to make a PDF, it will print each section as it’s own separate PDF. Not only that, usually it will resize each section to different page dimensions. AAArrrrggggh.
For instance my novel had 3 sections.
Section 1. Front page and copywrite
Section 2. All the bits before the book begins, like table of contents, maps, etc..
Section 3. The actual book starting on page 1 according to the index.
Word would create 3 separate PDF documents.
I used a PDF program to merge them together. In my case, I used PDFPenPro. I quickly noticed that all my text was properly formatted to 6×9 inches but Section 1 and 3 had 8.5×11” dimensions with the text floating in the middle. Section 2 had very little white space as it looked as it should.
I solved this by printing only those pages to a new PDF. This made them appear like the rest of the book 8.5×11” Then I repasted those pages back into my book using PDF PenPro.
I uploaded the book and the only Createspace autovetter error was that my book was 8.5×11”. It automatically figured out the proper dimensions and viola.
Note, to continue onwards to submit your book, even though you’ve already proofed and approved the book, you must say, skip proof of this book. Weird, but it works. Then Download their PDF to check, then buy a couple of proof hardcover copies. Wait a week. When it arrives, make lots of marks that you didn’t see when it was digital. Soon you are on your way to getting this out the door, unless you are a perfectionist. In that case, your descendants can release it.
Smashwords
From now on, do all your editing in your createspace version and paste over parts that you change in this createspace version (Leave the Chapter headings alone and paste the chapter text on top of the old. When you are done with this you aren’t going to want to make any big changes. The biggest headache is creating your Table of Contents. Read the manual for more info, this is more of a cheat sheet.
- Delete garbage in your TOC.
- Create bookmarks. Super hard. Follow the guide.
- If you make changes to your master, copy each chapter over, don’t just paste the whole book over, otherwise you’d need to recreate the table of contents.
- Don’t forget to turn website references into hyperlinks, and of course verify that each link works properly.
Marketing
As soon as I know how to do this successfully, I plant write some tips here.