My Dear Readers,
Except for a few people in my orbit, nearly everyone I have ever met has an unfulfilled fantasy. I often use that question as a filler when there is a lull in conversation, or even to start a topic when meeting new people.
What would be my unfulfilled fantasy? It has to do with sports. As an athletic youth, I enjoyed tennis, baseball, and skating. But I never had that "killer" instinct. When someone would rush me at the net on the court, I would just laugh. I enjoyed the game but didn't enjoy the competition. I probably would have never been the next Kris Everett, but if I had had more of a competitive personality, I may have gone further.
Because I'm often around creative individuals, it's quite common for them to share that they have a book that is been started (whether on a computer, or sitting in their brain) and they've never felt the confidence to continue writing, never found the time, need advice about publication, or any other of the many reasons why that project got stalled.
While I don't have advice about how to resume writing that book that's been waiting to be written, I can tell you that getting your book published, printed and distributed are the aspects that should not get in your way.
I'm going to delve into the steps of self-publishing, and I'm going to focus on Amazon KDP as its low barrier to entry, and ease of service make it an ideal platform.
Before You Start
Whether you're an illustrator, poet, critic, or science fiction writer, while you're creating, put aside a few moments to imagine what your finished product will look like. What do I mean? Here are some things to consider:
What finished size will you want it to be? (paperback, hardback, square, etc)
If you have illustrations, will they be in color?
Will you want your book to be published on Kindle (or any other ebook reader)
Do your illustrations take up the full page? Will they flow onto facing pages?
Does your book have chapters?
Do you know how to add style guides to chapter headings?
Will your book have an index or footnotes?
Do you have a cover design?
Glossy or matte cover?
Where Do I Come Into the Picture?
Whatever you decide, your book’s pages need to be formatted correctly for each type. This includes not only the page dimensions, margins, line spaces, and page numbers but also the style of the book—things like font, how the chapter titles look, and how graphics or images will be shown (if any).
While these are only a few aspects of formatting, it will save you time, headache (and of course money) if you plan these out ahead of time. Of course, you can do these all yourself, but for some authors, it takes a LOT of time for to figure them out—and maybe still not get it right and that's where I come in.
How Do We Work Together?
Once you're ready for publication, or even if you're just in the planning stages, we'll have a consultation where we will go over all the milestones that need to be in place before we can upload to Amazon. I'll review your manuscript, and cover it and give you feedback about how "ready" it is for publication.
As you journey through the world of self-publishing, you will find that it is full of adventure and excitement. The labor of creating a book, and then feeling those pages flow through your hands is adrenaline-boosting. What's the next step? Marketing and I can help you with that too!
Start writing! Start drawing! Start creating!
Lisa