Publish Your Work
ARE YOU READY?
SIX STEPS TO BECOMING AN
INDIE AUTHOR
Step 1. Finish Your Book
Write 'The End' on the last page.
Having difficulty? You keep doing re-writes, re-editing, over and over .... compulsively? Guess what? IT WILL NEVER BE PERFECT. Do something to MAKE yourself finish it, get a Life Coach, ask people to support you, give yourself a big deadline. Tell your writer's group your deadline and ask for their help.
Step 2. Editing
Obviously it needs to be edited to get rid of typos, punctuation errors and 'purple prose' (eg. too many flowery adjectives, phrases. Keep the language simple). Check with a friend who can tell you how well the story flows. You may need to pay an editor if you don't have friends with the time or inclination to spend on your work (see my Proof Reading section).
Step 3. Book Cover
Who will design the cover? Do you have an artist friend or acquaintance? Run a competition. Pay someone. IT MUST LOOK PROFESSIONAL. Go to a bookshop and look at book covers. THE BOOK COVER SELLS THE BOOK. We can help with that, for a reasonable market price fee.
Step 4. Make a Plan Man (or Woman)
How you want to publish it, where you will do the Book Launch, how will you advertise the launch. etc. Presumably you've tried the big publishers and agents and got ... zilch. You have no more patience. You are a control freak. You want to be in total control of the whole process. It MUST be published NOW. So you're here. GO FOR IT. You want a book that looks professional, like any other book in the book shop, which stands out to your target audience.
Step 5. Publish Paperback
As an about-to-be Indie author, you want to know how to publish on Amazon, Lulu or whichever e-publisher you want, how to upload your interior, your cover. [For e-book publishing CLICK HERE] How to order paperback copies for you, your family and friends, the launch; who to tell (local press). We can give you simple tips to DIY or more in-depth person to person advice will be chargeable. We want to support you to do it yourself. But time is money for all of us.
Step 6. Publicity and Marketing
How to use social media to market your book and all the other ways to get publicity. Same rules apply. If you want a few tips we'll support you. More in-depth advice ... you know the score.
One thing I will add - I hate the sales technique where the product is built up and raved about all the way through and the price is never mentioned until you click a link 20 minutes later. I usually scroll down to the bottom straight away and click to the price page. Before reading any more. I'm so irritated by then I'm unlikely to buy it. This technique is to get the reader to have built up their expectations to fever pitch and then they'll pay anything.
Any service that we charge for is going to be up front and easy to find.
