Extract from Publish it! How to self-publish your book for free using Kindle Direct Publishing, CreateSpace and Smashwords
You first need to decide which self-publishing options best suit you and your
book. Start by asking yourself the following questions and come up with a
publishing plan that meets your needs.
Do you want to see your book available as
an ebook, printed book or both?
The quickest way to publish your
book and start selling is to publish an ebook. Many writers publish an ebook
first and then publish a printed version at a later date. Of course if you work
as a trainer or public speaker you may well want printed copies of your book to
sell at events.
Do you have a budget for publishing or
have you decided to undertake all of the tasks yourself?
You may decide to undertake all
publishing tasks yourself which will enable you to publish your book and make
it available to readers in both printed and ebook formats for no cost. You may
decide to buy in services, these can include proofreading and editing, cover
design, and storage if you decide to commission a print run. Make a list of
services you would prefer to buy in and then prioritise them.
How much time do you
want to allocate to publishing, sales and distribution?
The actual
publishing process can be fairly quick, it can take less than an hour, however
managing sales and distribution can take up significant time. Decide whether
you want more time writing and less time on administration tasks or prefer to
undertake much of the work yourself. If you choose to take on sales and
distribution you will need to ensure you have storage space for printed books,
have time to keep up to date with orders and are able to create a website from
which readers can order your books, download your ebooks and make payments.
Where do you want your book to appear for
sale? Amazon? Your local book store?
If you want to sell through Amazon,
iBookstore, Barnes and Noble and others you will find this easier if you
publish using both Amazon and Smashwords.
What quality of
printed book do you want?
Some
self-publishing services offer limited or no choice in how your printed book
will be produced. CreateSpace, for example, enables you to produce paperback
books only, whereas Lulu offers a range of binding options. Decide what you
want and then compare your options.
How much do you want to charge for your
book?
This might have an impact on your publishing choices – ebooks are straightforward
as there are no printing costs to consider – just decide on the price and look
at the services and retailers that support your choice. On Amazon there is a
minimum selling price of £0.75/$0.99 however you can make your book available
from your own website or Smashwords for free. Print on Demand (POD) books will
have a higher per copy production cost than printing multiple copies, if you
want to keep the price low you may need to consider paying upfront for a print
run.
How much time do you want to allocate to
promoting your book?
You may enjoy the promotion and
marketing side of self-publication or you may prefer to allocate your time to
writing. Some self-publishing services provide you with inclusive promotions. Whilst
you can choose to publish to all of the available platforms there may be some
restrictions, e.g. if you choose to enroll into KDP Select (Kindle) you cannot
offer your ebook for sale elsewhere.
Publishing
an ebook
In recent years there has been an ebook
revolution; readers are consuming ebooks at a phenomenal rate and there is no
sign of this trend slowing. Readers can settle down with their ereader, browse
books online, make a purchase and start reading within minutes. We live in an
instant society; when a buyer makes a purchase they want their item now.
Publishing an ebook is probably the quickest, easiest and cheapest way to get
your book in front of your potential readers. There are many other advantages to
publishing an ebook; royalties are higher than for printed books (mainly due to
cheaper production and delivery costs), readers have instant access to their
purchases and publishing is quick and easy.
Ebooks can be read on a computer, laptop, tablet, ereader and mobile phone. Just
think of the potential readers you have available to you. With ereaders now
available with internet access and a wide range of apps, essentially putting
them into the tablet category, they are only going to become more popular.
Ebooks tend to be reasonably priced, even cheap; the result is that readers
will give little thought to making that £2.99 purchase perhaps in the same way
they give little thought when deciding to buy a cup of coffee. For the writer
this means more books sold.
With a number of publishers offering publishing, promotion and distribution
services for free, two popular ones are Amazon's KDP and Smashwords, you can
literally publish and sell today.
Publishing with Amazon’s KDP provides you with up to 70% royalties and some
free promotional activity including emails to readers recommending books based
on their previous purchases and a “customers
also bought” feature.
Publishing with Smashwords provides you with up to 85% royalties and also
provides the opportunity to make your book available on Apple iBookstore,
Barnes and Noble and other online retailers.
If you wish to sell your book as an ebook through your own distribution
channels you can format your book as a pdf
file (see chapter 4) and sell through your own website or through an online
retailer of digital products.
Publishing an ebook has much to offer both the new and experienced writer. Now
is the time to benefit from this digital revolution.
Publishing a printed book
For a writer there is nothing quite like holding a physical copy of
your book in your hands. Even better is seeing copies of your book on the
shelves of bookstores. There are many advantages to publishing a printed book;
you can use features that may not display correctly on ereaders, e.g. tables.
You control much of the formatting including text type and size. You can sell
your book in locations not suited to the sale of ebooks such as your training
events or high street stores; and, as with ebooks, you can publish for free.
The cost of producing a printed book is higher than an ebook so you will need
to consider your pricing strategy. It is perfectly OK to charge different
prices for printed and ebook versions of the same book. In fact there is an advantage
to this – readers see the ebook at a significantly lower price and perceive
that they are getting excellent value for money.
There are several ways to approach publishing a printed book.
Print on Demand (POD)
This is a quick, easy and often free way to publish a book; as you do not
need to invest in a print run you can also test the market. There are many advantages
to POD including no storage considerations, no upfront payments for print runs
and the ability to change the content of your book without waiting for previous
stock to be sold. The main disadvantage is that printing costs can be higher
than other methods meaning you may need to charge a higher price for your book
or be prepared to take a lower profit margin.
CreateSpace (Amazon) provides writers with a free service which includes
promotion and distribution. They will keep an amount of money from the sale of
each copy sold; you can set the book price accordingly and so determine your
profit.
Lulu is another popular POD service that is easy to use; they will also sell
your book from their website. Lulu has the additional advantage of offering you
a range of binding and paper options.
Both Amazon and Lulu have additional distribution channels you can buy into.
Print run
Commissioning a long print run (1000+ copies) can significantly reduce the
cost of each book. You can either use a self-publishing company or organize the
printing yourself through a local or specialist printer.
Which self-publishing service?
Amazon's
KDP – a free to use service that enables you to
publish your ebook and make it available across all of Amazon’s territories; they
manage sales and distribution and offer different royalty options based on your
pricing. KDP also have a range of promotional tools that support increasing
your sales including a “customers also
bought” section. If you enroll into KDP Select you can promote your book as
free for five days in every ninety and you will earn income each time your book
is borrowed by Amazon Prime members.
Smashwords – a free to use service
offering a range of distribution channels including iBookstore and Barnes and
Noble. They will manage sales and distribution and offer royalty options based
on distribution channels.
Lulu – a popular free to use POD
service that offers you, the writer, a range of binding options. Lulu is a
popular POD service that enables you to create a printed book that meets your
requirements. Lulu provides a range of options including paper grade, paperback
or hardback, colour or black and white. You can choose to pay for the global
reach option which will make your book available to bookstores.
Amazon's CreateSpace – another free
to use POD service that prints your book as a paperback and makes it available
on Amazon. They also offer expanded distribution channels for which there is a
cost.
Self-publishing companies - a
number of companies offer self-publishing packages. It is important to consider
all aspects of printing and selling a printed book in order to decide on the
best package for you.
There are some excellent self-publishing
companies out there as well as some who charge a lot of money for a poor
service (vanity publishers). Good companies will work with you to provide
professional advice and services resulting in a package that is tailored to
meet your needs.
Typical packages include editing, cover
design, ISBN, ebook conversion, promotion to booksellers, managing storage and
distribution, and printing an agreed number of your book.
It is worthwhile spending some time getting recommendations, visiting the
company premises and inspecting samples of printed books before deciding on
which self-publishing company to use. Always check the contract before signing.
Managing the publication process
yourself - you can of course manage the whole process yourself and buy in
the services you need from separate sources. You might even decide to set up
your own publishing company. If you choose this route consider the time you
will need to invest managing the publishing process, and sales and
distribution. Of course this could be the start of a whole new business, one
you enjoy as much as writing.
The choice is yours. Decide on the best
approach for you and then start preparing your book for publication.
