Self-publishing is like venturing into entrepreneurship. The writer is the CEO, and his book is the product. The writer collaborates with designers, editors, typesetters, and marketers for giving the perfect shape for his or her book. Unlike a publishing house, a self-publisher is in charge of his book, wherein the way the book appears and feels is directly proportional to the writer’s vision. Besides, the author works on promoting his book in the market and taking his book to the masses as well. He, also, reaps comparatively a higher margin of royalty when compared to a traditionally published author. As an independent author, you should, however, take into account the many aspects and work that needs to be done before and after your book is self-published.
Professional editing
When it comes to quality, self-published books tend to lag the most. Self-publishers often neglect editing and proofreading. Releasing a manuscript for sale without proofreading and editing it is a mistake. There are a lot of self-publishing writers who do not go through the steps to ensure that their product is the absolute best it can be when it is released for publication. If you want someone to give you their hard-earned money in exchange for your story, you better make sure they are getting their money’s worth. Hire an editor as it will make a difference in how well your book sells. Consider it an investment.
Design and layout
The cover is one of the essential elements of your book. A good cover will encourage people to click on your book description on shopping websites. An unattractive cover one will turn people away, of whom many will be your potential readers. Cover design is a specific type of design, and few designers excel at it. Good cover designers are worth their weight in gold because the cover design is one of the more challenging types of design. Big publishing houses have excellent cover designers. If you can afford it, hire a cover designer.
Like the cover design, the book layout is a specialized skill that is deceptively difficult to do well. The common mistake 98% of self-published authors make are margins that are too small. When you self-publish a book, your costs go up when the page count goes up, so that encourages self-published authors to make low margins and use small type to cram as many words on the page as they can. Small margins make the book hard to hold; small type makes it hard to read. Fortunately, there are lots of professionally designed templates floating around. Once more, hire a designer if you can afford it. Your book will look so much better.
Proper print formatting
Professional books are printed on offset printing presses. These are high-quality presses that produce outstanding printed pieces. Letters are crisp and clean, and the illustrations are pleasant. The science of ink on paper has a long history behind it, and the modern printing press is a cutting edge technology. Self-published books are printed using print on demand: a book is not printed until it is ordered. The outcome is a low-quality printing. Printing on demand brings a lot of limitations. Photos and illustrations don’t look as good for various technical reasons.
Branding
Many authors fail to create a brand identity and become just another dusty name on the shelf. If we look at publishing as a business, we must approach it with a business mind. All successful companies and individuals have some form or brand identity. You need to craft one for yourself.
Visibility
Visibility is the toughest thing for any author, regardless of whether or not they are trade- or self-published. The best way to build visibility is to start locally: talk to your local newspaper about doing a general interest story about a local author and the new book you are releasing. Take a long, deep breath, walk into a local, independent bookstore, and ask if they would be interested in selling your book.
Promote as much as you can without spamming
Join groups of readers who discuss books. Sign up to sites where readers meet and discuss books. The mistake that many authors make is in trying to hard-sell books to everyone they meet. Annoying people will turn them away from discovering your book. It is best to introduce yourself as an author when visiting reader’s groups and sites.
The quality of self-published books is quite varied, depending on what services an author has engaged in the design and production of the work. Many publishing services have arisen to meet the demand of writers who wish to see their work distributed. The internet contains all the information authors need to know to put together a quality product however, they have to do delve in and carefully analyze before jumping in.
