Hello members of my bookish family. As you may know if you follow me on social media, I decided to self-publish for the first time. Self-publishing is a lot of work and the upfront costs can be ridiculous but I wanted to show support for all my friends and colleagues who have done it. Besides, self-publishing would help me learn more about it and give me insight that I can offer to colleagues and clients alike.
When you self-publish and don't want to pay ridiculous amounts of money, you are responsible for editing, typesetting, cover graphics, citations, annotations, marketing, the whole deal. And as an editor, I could handle that part. I even tried my hand at typesetting to make everything look nice in both print and ebook format. While I am not the best, I decided that I would create my own cover, as well.
Where does that leave me? Well, now the book is ready all that is left to do is buy an ISBN, buy the barcodes, pay for copyrights, pay for printing, get a marketing strategy going and sell them! It may not seem like a lot but this has been a process. I have worked on this project for months and I am bone tired. Have any of you self-published? Comment down below and let me know what you did, what worked and didn't work. I love learning from others.
Anywho, now that I am at this point, I decided that the best thing to do is buy an ISBN (the number on the back of your book that identifies it to the world). What most people don't know is that most books require 2 ISBNs and some even have 3. Why? Because you need a different ISBN for every format of you book. So even if it is the same book, you'll need one for print, another for ebook and still another if you decide to do an audiobook. Can you believe that? Some would say it's highway robbery, but it is understandable. Plus, it will help you keep track of which format works best for you in regards of sales, feasibility, etc.
For those who are interested in learning more about ISBNs, consider looking at Bowker.com
I say all that to say this! Self-publishing isn't easy. This has been a long journey, one that a few years ago I never would have considered but I am glad I did.
If you would like to help support me on my journey like, share and back my Kickstarter here! There you can learn more about my book project as well!