Have You Ever Self-Published a Book?

If we meet at a cocktail party and you tell me how easy writing a book is or should be, you’d better back the $#>& up.

Just Don’t Do That

I’m used to people asking me for free legal advice. It’s happened my entire life. I hand them my business card and tell them to give me a call during business hours. Still, I know it’s going to happen one day. Something along the lines of: “I have this idea,” you say. “I think throwing a book together about this would be so easy. What do you think?”

I think you’ve lost your mind.

My screwing around with writing started in 2012. I ditched it when I opened my third business and began running Airbnbs after the exhaustion of practicing law and owning a nationwide title company (yes, all 50 states and Puerto Rico) during the real estate crash. I picked it up again a few years later, then after a harrowing experience with an editor, locked the entire mess in a box and almost threw it in the ocean.1

So what’s involved? It can’t be that hard, right?

First, you write the book, then you edit the book a bazillion times. Then, when you get to the point where you think it might be a decent book, you send it to the developmental editor to ensure you have the plot, characters, and everything else heading in the right direction. It helps to have someone remind you to see the forest, not just the trees.

Then you get the dev editor’s changes.

Your ego is crushed. Even with a professional developmental edit and her suggestions to “elevate your book to a higher level,”2 seeing all those flipping red lines running through your words still hurts a bit.

So you make those changes and, for good measure, a couple more rounds of your own. Then, you nervously send it out to real people to read your book and tell you what they think. That’s when it really hurts. Beta readers come in many varieties, but here are the types I usually see3:

1. They didn’t read the book or bother to tell you until you asked. (My kids just won their game, and are in a championship for the next month.)

2. They read the book, didn’t like it, and gave you a few sentences that aren’t helpful about what they think. (Those comments would have been constructive.)

3. They read it, liked it, but gave you no comments.

4. OR, you will be lucky, and that one particular friend will read it and give you more thoughts, ideas, and potential changes and corrections than you expect, even more than you get from your editor.4

By this time, you’ve had about two dozen rounds of editing or more. Yes, you’re sick of the book. After beta reader 4, I put my book in the drawer for a month and worked on something else. After the break, I took beta reader 4’s suggestions to heart, and it took me an entire month to complete that round of changes. A lot of profanity was involved, but her suggestions made the book so much better.

After more changes, the manuscript was sent to a line editor and a copy editor. Since this was my first time doing this, I needed to see what they do and how they do it. I’m not sure I’ll do that again, especially since ProWritingAid did a much better job. At the same time, I searched for a professional cover designer and, later, for marketing help.

The excitement begins when the covers take shape, at least for me. We had a few communication issues because describing what art should be isn’t my strong suit, but we’re making it, and my covers are excellent. (Thanks, Nick.)

But that was nothing compared to the illustrations created by Emily, my marketing person. I could not figure out why in the world we needed illustrations, even for marketing. Art, marketing, and design are so far from my comfort zone that I was at a loss. I asked her to show me examples of what she wanted and how she intended to use them.

She did better than that. She created them herself.

It is like nothing I’ve ever experienced: receiving an email, opening it, and seeing your characters fully come to life in illustrated form. Opening one in particular, I burst out in insane laughter. The illustration was precisely—I mean precisely—how this character looked in my head. Exhilarating.

Oh, but we’re far from done.

So here’s where we are so far:

Writing

Editing multiple + rounds

Developmental Edit

Editing again

Beta Readers

More editing

Line Editor

Copy Editor

Cover Designer

Marketing set up with lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of emails, art, and questions. Oh my god.

But Wait! We’re Just Now At the “Publishing” Stage

Once you think your book is ready, it must be in the correct format. Vellum is software that makes this easy and is user-friendly. There are others, but I chose this one after researching formatting. In addition to your actual book, there are other parts, and these are the Front and Back matter items I’ve chosen:

Title page

Copyright information

Dedication

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Bio

We now have to take time to determine precisely what you will publish. What does that mean? Are you publishing an ebook, print book, hardcover book, audiobook, or all of them? At different times? Or all at once?

Since this is my first time, I must do it one step at a time. Ebook first, print, then audio. Then I plan to discuss with a Turkish publisher their ability to create the fancy hardcovers with sprayed edges for the international series. Fun stuff, huh?

You’ll need an ISBN (each book’s unique identification number) to be included on your copyright page. When your book gets its social security number, you know you’re almost there! There are various opinions about how to get an ISBN for your book and whether each type (ebook, print, audio) needs one, and it takes research time to make the right decisions. These two steps require set-up and purchase time. Be warned: the various sites do not play well together. Amazon plays WITH NO ONE. Even when you are following the rules, there are glitches. Take a breath and try again, or figure out a way around.

Then, as a lawyer, I played it safe and submitted my application to the U. S. Copyright Office. I want that certificate.

Are We Done Yet?

No. We’re not done. Stop acting like a five-year-old going to Disney World. We’re just getting started! You’re doing all this yourself, remember?

Okay, you say, pick a publishing house and get going. Hurry up! Just go to Amazon and set up an account. Ah, that’s the problem. Amazon has picky, picky rules. IngramSpark has different, picky rules. Then there’s Draft2Digital, Book Vault, Books.by—I have an entire list. Each is different, whether you use them for ebooks, print, or audio. And there are restrictions. Some are global, some are not. Will you be “exclusive” or will you “go wide. And then there are book subscriptions, Kindle Unlimited, Kobo Plus, and even Spotify, which has jumped into audiobooks.

It’s a lingo thing. Do you speak book? Do you know the difference between a Publisher, Distributor, and Aggregator? I had to learn, and the terminology list never ends.

Since I’m publishing my first novel soon, I decided to set up my spreadsheet and figure out each puzzle piece. It took me several weeks, and there was some confusion initially, but then I made my plan.

At this point, you begin pre-publication marketing. You’ve selected which company you want to print your books, so you order Advance Reader Copies (ARCS) for as many free readers as possible. These ARC readers help you find little things you might have missed, but most importantly, read and review your book. In today’s book sales world, reviews are essential. Too much so, I believe, but that is the system I’m stuck with. They will read for a month, giving you time to finish the remaining details.

Now we need to price the book. Initially, I thought it was a strategy thing rather than a profit thing. I’m guessing. I haven’t done this and don’t mind learning as I go. Also, as you can tell, I’m still determining the pricing for each book type. Each online bookstore, Amazon Kindle, Google Books, Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, etc., has a different pricing suggestion. It is enough to make you pull your hair completely from your head.

Are We There Yet?

You’ve proofed your book, it’s been read by your ARC readers to catch anything weird, and it’s as ready as you can make it. With each website you’ve selected for your ebook, you complete all the setup and upload your novel.

And click the button.

And then you’re done! You’re published! You’re instantly famous!

No! We’re Not Done! You want it to sell? We have to market the damn thing.

Ugh.