Of course, you could always print your manuscript pages using your home printer, photocopy them, make your own cover and staple the whole thing together, but you don’t need any tips to accomplish that, do you?
Traditional Offset Printing:
This type of self-publishing is the most expensive for several reasons. More on this to come.
Print-on-Demand Publishing:
This type of self-publishing enables you to print only what has been ordered by a customer. This saves on printing and storage costs. More to come on this, too.
eBook Publishing:
Digital books, called eBooks, cost very little to self-publish. A digital edition might be the best way to publish your booklet or instruction manual. However, because eBooks usually sell for about half of what traditionally printed books are priced at, and since they usually attract far fewer readers, they often generate much smaller profits than printed books. Yet they can be great at getting your book additional exposure. Some authors give away digital editions of their books as gifts to clients.
Create, Design, Format & Read An eBook:
You can create your eBook using Microsoft Word. (Of course, you’ll want to have it edited afterward!)
If you want it to look like a traditional book, you can design the pages using such software as Quark or Microsoft Publisher.
Once you have created your eBook, and possibly designed it to look like a traditional book, you’ll need to publish your document in an eBook format. Common formats (and their document extension names) include plain text (.txt), hypertext (.htm or .html), Kindle (.azw), Adobe Portable Document (.pdf), Palm Media (.pdb), Sony Media (.lrf, .lrx), Microsoft Reader (.lit) and EPUB (.epub). Popular publishing software products include Adobe Acrobat (adobe.com), Nitro PDF and Palm eBook Studio. For more information, you might want to check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats.
To read your eBook, your clients will need to have a reader such as Adobe Reader, Adobe eBook Reader, Microsoft Reader or Palm eBook Reader. The reader software must be compatible with the device they will be using to pore over your masterpiece: A PC, Mac, laptop, smartphone, Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Apple iPad, personal digital assistant (PDA) or Pocket PC. See pdfstore.com to download eBook reader software.
Related Zen Blog posts:
zeneditorial.com/self-publishing/how-do-you-write-and-publish-a-book
zeneditorial.com/self-publishing/self-publishing-in-vancouver
Some popular websites about self-publishing:
authorsolutions.com (which represents iUniverse, Trafford, Xlibris, Wordclay, AuthorHouse and Inkubook)
bookmarket.com (information to help you sell your book)
fonerbooks.com (an enlightening website about Print-on-Demand by Morris Rosenthal, author of Print-on-Demand Book Publishing)
parapublishing.com (an informative website about self-publishing by Dan Poynter, author of Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual)
Writers’ resources:
cascadiapublicity.com/Helpful_Links.html has a great summary of resources for writers. The website list has a strong B.C. flavour.
fionaraven.com is the website of a veteran Vancouver book designer.
greatlittlepublishing.com/ Steve Wilcox, president: “The Great Little Publishing Company helps authors through all stages of creating a commercially successful book, which means they can make more money than what it costs to produce. Being successful is all about marketing and promotion. The Great Little Publishing Company works with authors on all phases of book creation: first, by working to develop a viable book-marketing plan; then, helping them produce top-notch, professional work, both inside and out – one that fits with their book-marketing plan; and finally, implementing the publicity and promotional activities necessary for achieving the envisioned success.”
intuitivegraphicdesign.com offers graphic design, cover design and professional layout services for self-publishing authors. IGD also negotiates discount pricing for small-run Print-on-Demand books.
outskirtspress.com says it offers the best of both worlds by combining the advantages of independent self-publishing with the advantages of traditional book publishing: “Before, during, and after publication you will receive the assistance of a dedicated group of publishing professionals, all the while maintaining 100% of your publishing rights and 100% of your profits. With our Private Label Imprint and ISBN option, you can even own your own ISBN assigned directly by R.R. Bowker (for 20% less than they charge you).”
writeradvice.com promotes and publishes established and emerging authors.
unibook.com says: “Make your unique book with UniBook! We publish your work for free and you only have to pay for the books you actually buy. With our easy-to-use book publishing wizard you can upload your book and generate your book cover, so you only have to care about writing. We will print, bind and ship your book worldwide.”
This page is a work in progress. Please check back often for updated information.
