5 Steps To Self Publish A Book

Have you decided to self publish your book manuscript? But, still wondering how to self publish. First, congratulations! You’re reading the right article to learn how to self publsh a book. Secondly, the new millemium is a good time to self publish. In fact, you are not alone. Experts agree there’s a self publishing revolution going on. According to Bowker, Self-publishers monitored by the company are growing at a rate of over ten percent per year. CreateSpace led the field, with about 34,000 new titles in 2010. Lulu was in second place with 11,000, followed by Xlibris at 10,700 and AuthorHouse with 8,500 (about 64,000 titles as a group). In 2009, the top five self-publishers, which also included PublishAmerica, accounted for 57,500 new titles. Remember that self-publishers do not use ISBNs for all of their books, so the ISBN-less books are not included in the totals.

Nevertheless, according to the statistics above more and more people are choosing self publishing as the preferred option. So, to help you confirm your decision I present an overview of some basic steps to self publish your book:

1. Decide how you want to legally set up your publishing activities. No, I’m not about to give you legal advice. I recommend you visit with a lawyer or an accountant for advice on how to setup your legal entity. I do encourage you to create a seperate legal entity for your publishing. If you already own a company, and you plan to publish only your work you might consider setting up a publishing division. Otherwise, you need to setup a self publishing company.

Consider carefully how you name your company. If you are publishing only in one niche, you may choose a name related to your topic. But if you think you may want to publish on different topics in the future, choose a more general name. You can always create imprints that are more specific to the book or books’ topic. For example, my main publishing name is Butterfly Press but I have several imprints like Family Heritage Books, iWIN Books, Inner Court Publishing and others.

2. Buy ISBN number or ISBN Block of Numbers. Let’s be clear, without an ISBN number you are not considered the publisher. Your book is non-existent to the book buyers and sellers system. In the U.S. there is only one place to get them and that’s Bowker Identifier Services – Bowker.com or isbn.org. The minimum order of ten is a good place to start. Unless, you already know you will create lots of books and information products. Then you can invest in their block of 100.

3. Set Up Easy Distribution: CreateSpace and Amazon.com are affordable places to start distributing your book. There are many places you can make your book available for sale, including online and offline. If you are just getting started consider signing up for a free account with CreateSpace, who is owned by Amazon.com. According to authors, their quality used to be so off, most could only suggest printing proofs for test markets. In recent months and a couple of years, I can confirmed they have dramatically improved. See my case studies to prove it; I was pleasantly suprised, given the reports I heard previously. Or if you already have your book setup to print elsewhere, think about joining the Amazon Advantage https://advantage.amazon.com program to sell your book directly through Amazon.com.

4. Do Research; Create a Content Outline and Develop a TOC: According to what kind of book, you are doing you will most likely need to do research. I say it like that because in my BookWritingCourse.com I encourage the students to start with their existing body of knowledge. Then, if you find you are lacking in substantial material for any chapter you can do research to fill it in. In your research, get all the books, magazine articles available on your topic. This can add up quickly if you are purchasing your research materials, so consider your local library. Don’t forget the Internet. Check your sources carefully but do use the Inernet. The better the search results become from engines like Google.com, the more we simply draw a list of resources and visit each one.  After gathering your material, existing information and research, do a content outline. Then develop your table of contents.

5. Write Your Book Fast: Successful authors use a program or a simple writing plan to get their book written fast. Like any other discipline, you plan to fail if you don’t plan. I recommend my book, ‘Write Your Best Book Now which outlines a seven step program to get your book written quickly. If you need more time, the 100 Days To A Book writing course and membership is the one for you. It has twelve easy lessons, exercises and a growing mini-library of bonus lessons that take you by the hand and walk you through the steps of writing a book. Also, if your talent strengths are not in writing or you don’t have time  you can hire a ghostwriter. The ghostwriter essentially writes the book for you and you get to put your name and information on it.

Don’t price your book out of your book’s market range. This can get detailed; but at least do a simple market analysis. Go to Amazon.com and find some similar books to yours and see what they are charging for theirs. According to your book’s size and page count you can set your book right in the middle. If you have the confidence, your book’s package is competitive and your book’s content backs you up, you can even charge the higher end price.

Set a standard with proofreading your proof. If you’ve made a costly mistake yet, I won’t have to say much about this one. But if this is your first self published book, go the extra mile and order a physical book to proofread before you put in your first print order. Some printers like Lightning Source, it is mandatory to order a proof on your first book.

For more self publishing tips: Sign Up Today Self Publishing Your Words Your Way eCourse. Or visit the Self Publishing Your Words Your Way Course web page for more details.