Best Self Publishing Advice
You have figured out how to write memoirs or you have decided how to write a book, now you want to move on to how to publish a book. You know that you want to self publish with a Christian self publishing company, but that’s about it. Now that you are there and ready for your book publishing, what are you going to do?
Well firstly you need to assess what types of services you need for that self publishing service to provide. Your book may just be a booklet, or it may be a novel, but does it need an ISBN number and bar coded cover? What is going to be your decision on cover art, do you need to have some provided for you or do you have your own? Maybe you just want to go with a plain cover without any artwork at all, or maybe you will need to look over some proposed styles to choose. Remember in these situations that each service will require more of a financial commitment than the one before.
Self publishers will also offer several attractive features such as copyrighting, book marketing and distribution, as well as the possibility of print on demand, but again, only you can truly decide for yourself as to what services you want to employ for your book. With a bit more effort on your part, you will find that several of these services can be eliminated.
You can file on your own for the copyright on your material, all you have to do is fill out the form and pay the fee for the copyright office. You can do your own marketing, though this is not as easy and requires a bit of creativity and shameless self promotion, it is well worthwhile to some when you are having difficulties in finding marketing dollars in your budget. Do you really need your publisher to distribute your books for you, or do you think that you can generate sales on your own? Is your book more the type that you will sell as fundraisers out of the church newsletter and local periodical, or is it something specialized that really requires a professional to pinpoint your market? And do you think that print on demand is a service that you will require or do you think that you will need a supply of books for distribution at events or a store? Maybe you will need both types of service.
The best advice that anyone can give you in your pursuit of self publishing your book is to consider your needs very closely before you request your service. Only you know what types of service you can live without for the budgeted dollar, and only you know what services you will be able to provide yourself while still extracting the maximum value from the publishing service. Your book has been so long in the making and you want to start production right away, but try to remember how heavy the weight is of this decision, you can wait another day and shop other services, now is not the time to start rushing.