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So You STILL Wanna Be a Writer!
PART 2: SELF-PUBLISHING
This article provides tips on how to
self publish your book in Australia. However, it’s a notoriously complex
subject and you will still need to undertake your own research.
- Editing: When you
are ready to self publish your book the first thing you need to think about
is editing. While you may have friends or relatives to help you with a
structural edit: plot holes, characterisation, dialogue etc, you still need
someone experienced to undertake a copyedit and ensure that grammar,
punctuation and sentence structure are correct. If no one in your circle has
this professional experience, you should hire a professional freelance
editor from the Society of Editors or seek a recommendation from your local
state writers’ centre.
- Cover: Graphic
designers working for traditional publishers design at least three mock-ups
of each cover so that the marketing and editing department can make a final
decision. If you are following the self-publishing route, do lots of
research and examine covers that are in your book’s genre to identify the
successful design elements. You can use on-line tools or hire a designer.
Some print service providers have software you can use for free, to design
your own cover. Either way it’s best to test your cover on a target
audience to see if it successfully markets your book.
- Printing: There are
a few print options you can undertake: seeking a printing company to produce
your book, or using print on demand. If you use a printing company you will
usually find that the more copies you order, the cheaper it is per unit.
However, don’t get caught in the trap of over-ordering books that you
can’t store or sell. If you use print on demand, copies are only printed
as they are ordered, and you receive a royalty for each book sold. Companies
like Amazon’s CreateSpace offer free listing of titles so you can begin
publishing with no start up fees.
- Bookstore distribution:
When bookstores order books from traditional publishers they buy these on
consignment which means they pay for copies sold and return unsold copies.
You will need to provide the same service and negotiate a price so that the
bookstore receives a percentage of profit. Retailers look for a minimum
profit of 40% of RRP.
- Book Distributor:
You can also contract a distributor who will be able to sell your books to
stores for 25% of the RRP. Your book will be listed in their catalogues,
however, you still have to undertake your own promotion.
- General distribution:
These days you can also organise sales of your book on-line either via your
website with PayPal payment buttons, and via Amazon or eBay.
- Promotion: Seek
endorsements from authors who write in your genre. The best way to do this
is to approach an author you admire with a personal letter and ask if they
would read your book. Put their endorsement on the cover and use it for
publicity. Create a media kit including your book, a media release and
articles and reviews. Target your media kit to outlets for interviews and
reviews. Follow up politely and remember the leapfrog principle: use every
publicity opportunity to leapfrog to something else.
- ISBN: The ISBN
number is a thirteen-digit number that uniquely identifies your book
internationally. While it is not compulsory to have, if you don’t you will
not be able to offer your book for sale via any on-line bookstore, bricks
and mortar bookshop or submit to libraries. You will need to register and
pay for it from the ISBN agency
and insert it on your cover so it can be used as a reference to sell your
book. Publishing-service providers also offer free ISBN’s as part of their
service, but you will need to get a new ISBN if you move to a different
publisher-services provider. Also you need a new ISBN for each new format
your book is published in, i.e. paperback, hardback, audio book or ebook.
- Legal deposit: Books
published in Australia are subject to legal
deposit law and this means a copy needs to be submitted to your state
library and the National Library of Australia.
- Cataloguing-in-Print:
This is a free service offered by the
National Library of Australia whereby a publication is catalogued by
topic/theme. This is inserted on the reverse side of the title page and is
used by libraries/bookstores to categorise and search for your book.
I hope this article is a helpful
first start on your publishing journey. Check back soon for the third instalment
on digital self-publishing.
Sources:
Self-Publishing Made Simple by Euan
Mitchell (out of print, but can be found in libraries)
I would like to thank Liz Davies,
self-published author of Flying Over the
Rainbow, who kindly shared her knowledge.
Amra Pajalic
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