Introduction to Self-Publishing
If getting started with self-publishing is your main focus I have a few inspirational tips that will probably be of interest to you…
From paper to bits, to paper...
We have certainly moved along where it comes to book publishing, gone are the days when mass-producing books was necessary in order to be efficient and cost-effective through offset printing or letterpress.
Technology now permits us to produce a physical book as and when an order is made. You can imagine the relief or joy from would be best selling authors struggling to convince a publisher to risk covering the costs involved in the actual printing and finishing of a book. Well that was then.
Print-on-demand Books
I take it that you are aware of Print-on-demand or POD, and those fantastic printing machines that will automatically produce a given book based on data triggered by an online order.
Now, as a self publisher with access to all the shiny new gadgets and technology we have available today, that does not mean the journey to publishing your first book will be without its steep hills and learning curves.
But rest assured, you have the benefit of competing on a ‘Sort of’ level playing field.
Take your pick - from hardback to soft-back, PDF, eBook, Kindle...and more?
Whether you are publishing a hardback, soft-back, PDF or eBook for the Kindle, there will still be some frustrating moments. Many authors without the budget for a designer or illustrator currently complain about not being able to get their completed book to look professional, in spite of all the automated plugins and software they have access to.
Most books start life in a word processor such as Microsoft Word, before being exported as a PDF; this is the simplest, and some may even describe as the crudest, execution of the process of self-publishing a book. However, it does work fine for most situations.
The more discerning author however, will have concerns regarding presentation, user experience and accessibility and is likely to produce a book that accommodates both digital and hard copy formats…
Both Apple and Amazon have online solutions of their own…
Apple’s iBook Author is a fine example of an intuitive text book and interactive learning platform for instructional and education books….
Although, self-publishers often complain about the restrictiveness and licensing clauses involved with going this route. Things may have changed since writing. So still check it out.
Now, Amazon on the other hand provides a very similar service called CreateSpace.
