Category: Self-Publishing

Self-Publishing FAQs

These questions and answers were compiled from the last few self-publishing classes at the Bridgeport Public Library.

The next Self-Publishing 101 class is Tuesday, June 07
6:00pm – 7:00pm.

What is Self-Publishing?

Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author without the involvement of an established publisher.

You write the book and initiate the publishing process. This means you will have your book edited, formatted and designed.

You will choose how to publish and market your book.

What is Amazon KDP?

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is Amazon’s book publishing platform that can be used to self-publish a book online, which readers can purchase as an eBook or a print-on-demand book.

How much does it cost to self-publish a book?

Some self-publishing companies such as Lulu , Smashwords, and KDP do not charge any fees to set up your book and list it in their marketplace. IngramSpark (at the time of this writing charges $49 per title).

What is print on demand?

Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology and business process in which book copies (or other documents) are not printed until the company receives an order, allowing prints of single or small quantities.

Can I use more than one self-publishing company for my book?

Yes, if your book has its own ISBN.

What is an ISBN?

An ISBN is essentially a product identifier used by publishers, booksellers, libraries, internet retailers and other supply chain participants for ordering, listing, sales records and stock control purposes. The ISBN identifies the registrant as well as the specific title, edition and format.

How can I get an ISBN for my book?

You can purchase ISBNs through Bowker Identifier Services.

Where can I get photos and illustrations?

High-resolution, royalty-free photos and illustrations are available from such websites as Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay.

Can I hire somebody to help create my book?

Yes and you can begin by searching the web for “Freelancers”:

If I hire a freelancer to create illustrations for my book, will I own the copyright to those illustrations?

The short answer is “Yes” but read the fine print.

Which format does my book interior need to be in for self-publishing?

Usually PDF.

PDF stands for “portable document format”.  Essentially, the format is used when you need to save files that cannot be modified but still need to be easily shared and printed. 

How do I get my book interior as a PDF?

Most word processing applications have an export to PDF menu selection (and/or icon).

Which format does my book cover need to be in for self-publishing?

Also PDF.

How do I create my cover?

You will have at least several options here.

One: Download a cover template file from your self-publishing company. You will need to know your book’s trim size and total number of pages.

And then use a free tool like Canva to create your cover using that template.

Two: You can also hire a graphic designer to create your cover.

Three: Your self-publishing company may offer an online cover creator.

What do I need to self-publish my book?

  1. Your book’s interior manuscript in PDF.
  2. Your book’s cover in PDF.
  3. Your ISBN (if you have chosen to buy one).
  4. A description of your book (e.g. what would go on the back cover and/or in a book description box on Amazon).
  5. You should also brainstorm and write down some keywords for your book. For example, think about the what people would type into an Amazon search box to your book.
example keywords

Video Demo

Here is a short video with the FAQs and outlines the self-publishing process…

How to Self-Publish a Children’s Book on Amazon KDP

This is a video version of the presentation from the Library’s recent class (Tuesday, 5/3) on how to self-publish a children’s book on Amazon KDP. Press the “f” on your keyboard to watch it in full-screen.

If you have any questions and/or would like some help with self-publishing your children’s book, please contact me (Michael Gorzka) at mgorzka@bridgeportwv.com or 304.842.6248 x430.

The PDF (portable document format) version of the video can be downloaded here.

Resources used in the video:

I 💙 IMG Demo — Online Image Editor

Many image editing applications are expensive and/or cumbersome to use.

But iLoveIMG offers a fast, free and easy to use online image editor.

In this video, we demonstrate how to crop an image — which was necessary for the EPUB (digital) version of my self-published children’s book.

And we also demonstrate how to rotate an image and then resize it.

How to Self-Publish Your Book: Step 11, Revisions

The good news is even after you have published your book and it is available for sale, not everything will be engraved in stone.

For example, you can update your book’s keywords, change its categories, add contributors and revise its description.

You can even upload revised cover and interior files to fix typos and grammatical errors and address formatting issues.

(Although a substantial revision to the interior of your manuscript may require a new edition of your book and new ISBN.)

Procedure

  1. login into your account
  2. select your title
  3. make any changes or editions
  4. save
  5. wait for your changes to go live before you order any author copies
  6. your book will still be on sale until the revisions you made are reflected in the book’s description.

Here is a short video showing how this works in IngramSpark. Please note at after the revisions are saved, “Revision incomplete” appears after the title, so it looks like I forgot to do something. But this is simply ambiguous wording for “the changes you made will be reflected in your book’s description soon”.

How to Self-Publish Your Book: Step 10, File Uploads and Pricing

After you have created your cover and interior files and you know that keywords (or “subjects”) will enable people to find your book, the actual process of self-publishing is a matter of reading the information on each screen, filling out forms and following visual cues.

Self-Publishing companies usually do a great job in explaining your options at every stage of the self-publishing process. And it’s important to understand each one before you click “Continue”.

In this short video, we demonstrate how to self-publish a book using IngramSpark.

NOTE: If you have questions about anything or if you feel you need to do more research or if you run out of time, you can stop at any point and save your title as a draft.

How to Self-Publish Your Book: Step 9, Create Your Book Title

Now that you have your interior file (and had it proofread) and your cover file and have either purchased an ISBN or decided to use a free one, you can create your book title.

Regardless of which self-publishing company you decide to go with (e.g. Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, Blurb, Lulu, et al.) the basic procedures will be pretty similar.

  1. Create an account with the self-publishing company
  2. Create your title (which will include keywords and categories)
  3. Upload your files
  4. Preview your book
  5. Price your book
  6. Publish it.

Creating your book title in Amazon KDP (which we will use as an example) is just a matter for filling out forms, following visual cues and thinking about how people are going to find your book (i.e. keywords and categories).

By the way, “keywords” can be short phrases that people will actually type into a search box — e.g. “lined journal for women”; “daily journal with prompts” (without the quotes).

Here is the step-by-step procedure for creating a title in Amazon KDP…

How to create an interior PDF for an Amazon KDP Children’s book using Canva

  1. Type the story (in plain text)
  2. Select a trim size
  3. Calculate interior bleed dimensions
  4. Create a custom size design in Canva with interior bleed dimensions
  5. Upload your book illustrations
  6. Create the book pages using Canva’s text and move tools
  7. Download as PDF
  8. Need some help?

Quick video demo:

How to Self-Publish Your Book: Step 8, Proofreading

And then Robinson Crusoe stripped naked, swam out to his ship, filled his pockets with biscuits, and swam back to shore

After you have created your interior manuscript and carefully reviewed it again and again and again, it will need to be proofread — by anyone except you 🙂

Typos and grammatical errors can quickly sink your reputation as a reputable author.

What is proofreading?

Proofreading is the act of reading written work and marking any errors. These mistakes most commonly involve spelling, grammar, punctuation, and consistency.

Proofreading step #1

You may wish to print your manuscript and then proofread it on your own. You most likely will pick up some errors that you missed while reviewing it on your computer screen.

Make any corrections you need to and then export it again as a PDF.

Proofreading step #2

Engage a proofreader (or several).

Why should you have another person proofread your book?

In a nutshell, because it is very difficult to catch all of your own errors. And a spell check will not flag things like “too bee or not too bee.”

Writers intimately want what we want to convey and so it becomes easy for our brains to “fill in the gaps” as it were.

A proofreader will help  ensure the effectiveness of your writing style and the clarity of your ideas.

Options:

  1. You can hire a proofreader through various online services.
  2. You can ask a friend with a sharp eye for detail (and who won’t be shy about marking up your manuscript with a big red pen).
  3. You can also print a copy of your manuscript, put it in a nice binder and offer it to a member of your target audience with a polite request for their feedback.

The beautiful part about writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time…

Unlike, say, a brain surgeon.

How to Self-Publish Your Book: Step 8, How to Create a Cover with Canva

1. Get your cover template’s overall dimensions (highlighted above)
2. Create a new design in Canva with those dimensions (highlighted above)
3. Upload your cover template
4. Drag your template into the design
5. Lock the template in place
6. Upload your cover art (I found it easier to have front and back cover as separate files)
7. You can also use Canva’s photos and graphics
8. Drag and drop your cover art into the template
9. Use Canva’s tools to resize the cover art. Stay within the template guidelines.
10. You can decrease the opacity of your art to check (upper right corner)
11. Use Canva’s text tool to create the spine text
12. Use Canva’s tools to rotate the spine text and place it (you may need to adjust the text size)
13. You can zoom in and out (and decrease opacity) to make sure your art is within the guidelines
14. Use Canva’s text tool to create the back cover text
15. Download as PDF Print

How to Self-Publish Your Book: Step 7, create and download a cover template

When it comes to designing and creating your book’s cover, you have three options:

  1. Hire somebody to do it.
  2. Do it yourself (we will cover how to use Canva to design and create a book cover in the next blog post).
  3. Use an online cover generator (which KDP and IngramSpark both offer).

If you hire an illustrator or a graphics artist or if you do it yourself, you are going to need a cover template.

Creating a cover template for your book is really just a matter of filling out a form but you will need the trim size you selected for your book and its total number of pages (including the required blank page at the end).

In this short video, we are going to demonstrate how to download a cover template from Amazon KDP.

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