Self Publish A Book
Step1 to 14: How to Self-Publish a Book (from Warson Printing Blog)
Author: warson
Step1 Decide what your goal is. Some writers want to print out just enough copies of their prized project for colleagues and friends; others think they have a book that will sell to a larger audience.
Step2 Examine competing titles to make sure you’re not covering the same ground. Find out what sales of those books have been to see if it’s really worth your while to tackle a similar topic. Call book distributor Ingram at (615) 213-6803 and punch in the ISBN of the book you want to check on; you’ll hear a voice message containing the number of copies sold in the last year.
Step3Determine what format you’d like to publish in: hardcover, softcover, or ebook, which is essentially an electronic file and requires no paper printing.
Step4 Check out print-on-demand publishers. If all you want to do is get a book published, these vanity presses will do the job for a price. Some vanity houses will print just a few copies for a few hundred dollars. Print-on-demand is ideal for very short runs (25 to 500 copies). Instead of printing on traditional, ink-based offset printing equipment, pages are reproduced using a highend copier. A digital file from a page layout program links directly to a high-speed copier and then is machine-bound. Some shops offer perfect binding so it looks just like a printed book. Look at sources like Trafford.com, Xlibris.com and Iuniverse.com.
Step5 Print your book directly from your completed files with a directto- press printer. Instead of producing a different piece of film for each color of each page, the files are transferred directly to the printing plate. You’ll eliminate all the film costs, and save time too.
Step6Shop aggressively if you really want your book to sell. If you’re an established writer considering self-publishing, look around. You can either choose to have a print-on-demand company, such as those mentioned above, handle all the layout, printing and production activities, or go to a local offset printer and oversee each of those steps in the process personally.
Step7Ask potential suppliers to send you samples of their recently printed books. Don’t be shocked: The quality will vary considerably with regard to paper quality, cover design, layout, and whether it was run on a sheet-fed press or a web press. Ask questions about how individual pieces were produced.
Step8View competitors’ books to determine what size and format you’d like your book to take. Find out if there are standard sizes you should stay with to reduce costs, or whether a different format will help your book stand out. Format sizes can affect which print-on-demand publisher you can work with.
Step9Familiarize yourself with printing costs. These will vary, but you can expect to spend more than per book for a minimum print run of several thousand copies. You may also be charged extra for layout help, editing, design of a book cover, and for photos. Typical fees are to per page for editing, to for production, 0 to ,000 and more for design, plus per 300- page book for printing.
Step10Hire a designer with book experience (see How to Hire a Graphic Designer). He or she will design the type, flow the pages, and create a spectacular jacket as well. This is more expensive, in some cases considerably so, but the difference in creating a quality product is significant.
Step11Tally up your costs, including printing, graphic design, artwork, photography, copy editing and other expenses. A traditional publishing house that buys your book would normally absorb these costs, but then again, you lose control.
Step12Request an International Standard Book Number (ISBN), which is the standard code for identifying your book, at isbn.org. The cost for 10 ISBNs is 0, plus a minimum processing fee.
Step13Find out how and by whom your book will be distributed. Some print-on-demand companies handle it in-house. If you do it, you’ll need to have the books shipped to you, to contact book chains about stocking your book, potentially visit each bookstore individually, and handle any mail orders on your own. Some bookstores will accept a limited number of your books on consignment, which means you leave them and if they sell, you get paid; if they don’t, you pick them up in a couple of months. Some companies have extensive bookstore distribution; others focus more on online sales, which will have bearing on the types of activities you’ll need to perform to be successful.
Step14Be prepared to sell yourself. Any real marketing of the book will have to come from you. Self-publishing also means self-promotion, or hiring a publicist to do it for you.
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I did a full color book with lulu. Createspace also does color, though only in soft color. I haven’t used them myself.
Certainly all the template photo album companies mentioned in the above posts can be used to put together picture books, but it will not give you a lot of flexibility and will look like a template book. More importantly their production costs are such that your potential profit margin is gone. I find even lulu has gotten expensive enough to make this difficult, and honestly would not use them again myself.
If you don’t need to get your book listed online, you can use most any printer that does full color. If you need online distribution, your options are more limited.
I suggest staying away from the vanity publishers that offer expensive publishing packages. The money in those schemes comes from you, not from book sales.
A good place to learn more about self publishing is to visit the Absolute Write forums. Scroll down to their POD/self publishing thread. There you can hear real experiences from real self publishers.
They want deep discounts, deeper than 50%.
Call a bookstore and speak to the manager or person who does the stock ordering and ask what the standard discount is that they’re usually offered on bulk purchases. Also what their minimum purchase would need to generally be.
Self publishing isn’t as effective as getting it published by a company, but you can go to websites like lulu.com or iuniverse.com and put in a fee, and come out with a packaged deal for your book. iuniverse.com looks a bit better, lulu.com is more … independent on your part, the universe one actually does a lot for you, except its a bit more expensive..
Anywho, good luck.
ISBNs can be useful as mentioned in the previous two answers, but you do not need to have one. My book is for sale in bookstores and on Amazon with no ISBN
You can obtain the ISBN as mentioned previously or through any number of self-publishing publishers. Someone who is purely a printer will most likely not offer that service.
Before having any final prints done, I suggest, a lot of editing, wait edit with a fresh perspective and repeat. Get a proof to review, even it it costs substantially more before committing to a large print run.
The better self-publishing printers/publishers generally charge $50-100 for ISBN registration, though some include it in their service.
I recommend staying away from the more expensive vanity publishers . Go with a company that focuses on printing at a reasonable cost and if you need it maybe offers a few distribution and ISBN type services.
Please don’t do anything online. It is best to trust it with someone who is with your book publisher. Publishing companies now have all the resources to publish books with the same productivity and efficacy as that of regular black and white books you see in physical bookstores. Considering the fact that most books are in full color, you should choose a publishing company whose book’s are of the highest quality, bar none.
It’s fun that you get to see your book published with the same expertise and professionalism as the regular books that you see in bookstores.
Self-publishing entirely means that you get to retain full control of your book’s production and that it gives you the option to publish your work and claim authority of the photos that you have chosen to be published.
Best of luck!
Help me price my self publish book to bookshops.?
Within the next few weeks I will release a self publish book. Some of the books will be sold by myself at fairs and some will be sold by bookshops. The book has a cover price of £17.99, at what price should I offer it to bookshops. I know they can be a bit fly and don`t want to give away any more profit than I have to. Your advice will be gratefully received.
How do I self-publish a book?
I was reading many articles on how to self publish books, but all the answers were different on each site. My question is, how to self publish a book.
And if you do self publish your book, do you have to be a very social person to do it (like sit at events and talk about your book)??
For self publishing a book, what are the requirements such as ISBN or copyright things. Are these necessary?
I did not see advices on self book publishing especially on getting the book copyrighted, ISBN? and any other necessary things to do before we go to get a printer. How much money is involved in getting these done. Where to go to get these services other than printer.
How do I self-publish a book of photography?
Hello,
I am self-publishing a book of photography. So far, I have not found any self-publishing companies online that publish picture books. Could you please give me some websites and/or company names that do self-publish books of photography?
Thanks!
I want to self publish a book. Which book publishing software is best?
I want to self publish a softback book. What software should use to get this book ready for the printing press?