Advice wanted from self-publishers on the last mile!

[Bren G]

Hi folks,

a wonderful thing about this site is the wealth of experiences and so, I ask for advice of those who have gone before me, specifically about the 'last mile' of producing the book. My manuscript has gone through beta reading, and I've reworked top to bottom many, many times over the past three years. Now, I am working through and amending the manuscript with a freelance editor. It will take me a month or so to finish this stage and tightening and polish. (So far, I am leaning to KDP.)

As such, I wanted to look ahead at what's next in terms of making it ready for print (not marketing/building a platform as that is an entirely different ball of wax and would prefer to leave that for another discussion if ok!). There's a lot of advice spread out among the forum and much of it several years old so thought I'd ask here in 2020.

What advice would you give on :

1. Proofing?
2. Typesetting?
3. Any other things needed to get production ready?
4. What other things are important/to consider at this stage?

thanks!

Bren

 

[-K2-]

Watching for my own education...

K2

 

[Jo Zebedee]

4. Marketing plan. Start now. Who are your readers? What sort of covers do the bestsellers in your genre have? Do you have a mailing list or a wide social media reach? Do you have early reviewers lined up? Blog in place/vlog/blog hop?
Genuinely the first two are easy - you can buy them in for a very small amount (@thaddeus6th is worth an approach) or do it yourself.
3 is linked to the marketing plan.

so. Marketing.

 

[Brian G Turner]

KDP makes it easy to publish novels on demand, and there's an expanded distribution option that makes it available to order by bookshops and libraries.

Also, to avoid formatting issues, it can be helpful to be using stylesheets before publishing:

How to use Styles in MS Word for formatting a manuscript

I've used Microsoft Word since the early 1990's, and learned to simply format text as I came across it. This is now the wrong way to do it. Or, more simply put, it's a great way of making things difficult for yourself when formatting a manuscript for agents or publishers. As I found out as I...

www.sffchronicles.com

Another pointer: don't rely on a first book being a success. By all accounts, most people have to build up to any reasonable degree of success through publishing by having a stable of books. That way, if someone likes one book there's a chance they'll buy into more. And, IMO, you need multiple books before you even think of any kind of paid marketing, because otherwise the Cost Per Click will end up more expensive than your actual income.

 

[Ogma]

Proofing is a must, by more than one person. Nobody's perfect. You can typeset it for ebook or print with Vellum or you can pay someone to do it. Vellum is easy but you need a mac or something like macincloud to use it. Either way, you should be familiar with typesetting conventions.

As Jo said, you need a marketing plan.

Here's a list of cover artists. You don't have to spend a lot on a cover. A premade cover will do if it fits. It just has to appeal to the readers you're aiming for. You also need to put time into your blurb, a lot more time that you would imagine.

Make sure to include a link to your mailing list in the book. It needs to be CAN-SPAM and GDPR compliant, but there are several services like Mailchimp that take care of the mechanics of managing a mailing list so it's not as daunting as it sounds.

One of your biggest decisions is whether to go into KDP Select (you're only on Amazon/KEU) or go wide (you're on Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Google, etc.). That'll affect what tools you have at your disposal to promote your book.

Good luck!

 

[Bren G]

Proofing is a must, by more than one person. Nobody's perfect. You can typeset it for ebook or print with Vellum or you can pay someone to do it. Vellum is easy but you need a mac or something like macincloud to use it. Either way, you should be familiar with typesetting conventions.

As Jo said, you need a marketing plan.

Here's a list of cover artists. You don't have to spend a lot on a cover. A premade cover will do if it fits. It just has to appeal to the readers you're aiming for. You also need to put time into your blurb, a lot more time that you would imagine.

Make sure to include a link to your mailing list in the book. It needs to be CAN-SPAM and GDPR compliant, but there are several services like Mailchimp that take care of the mechanics of managing a mailing list so it's not as daunting as it sounds.

One of your biggest decisions is whether to go into KDP Select (you're only on Amazon/KEU) or go wide (you're on Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Google, etc.). That'll affect what tools you have at your disposal to promote your book.

Good luck!

Thanks @Ogma

I've got the cover done (sorry should've mentioned it) and working on the marketing plan/author platform as we speak.

Am not familiar with Vellum. Will Vellum lead to a professional looking work? Sounds from what you said that I can't escape the idea of learning about typesetting either way. Can you explain why that is? I was kind of hoping not to have to acquire a skill as I am learning the life of a self-publisher is to wear many hats and my closet is getting full of them each day. Any idea what it typically costs (range?) to pay someone to do the typesetting?

For proofing, where does one go to find proof-readers? Any help understanding typical costs would be helpful.

thanks

Brendan

 

[Bren G]

KDP makes it easy to publish novels on demand, and there's an expanded distribution option that makes it available to order by bookshops and libraries.

Also, to avoid formatting issues, it can be helpful to be using stylesheets before publishing:

How to use Styles in MS Word for formatting a manuscript

I've used Microsoft Word since the early 1990's, and learned to simply format text as I came across it. This is now the wrong way to do it. Or, more simply put, it's a great way of making things difficult for yourself when formatting a manuscript for agents or publishers. As I found out as I...

www.sffchronicles.com

Another pointer: don't rely on a first book being a success. By all accounts, most people have to build up to any reasonable degree of success through publishing by having a stable of books. That way, if someone likes one book there's a chance they'll buy into more. And, IMO, you need multiple books before you even think of any kind of paid marketing, because otherwise the Cost Per Click will end up more expensive than your actual income.

THanks @Brian G Turner,

does KDP have the typesetting tools as part of their package or do you have to 'load' a finished manuscript into it?

On the topic of a stable of books..I've heard the same advice from successful self-publshers like Nick Cole who advocate the same thing. He is on a 6 month release cycle I believe and seemingly able to make a good living. To be honest, it's a bit disheartening for me since I am currently unable to publish the type of quality I desire so quickly. I have neither the time or talent to crank them out in a way that I would be happy with them. This book will have taken me three years and not certain if the next would be much less. I guess it comes down to making art and making money. It'd be great to do both but I'll have to be satisfied by the former and ok until such time that the latter manifests (optimitically speaking!)

I hadn't thought of it in terms of Cost Per Click so that is definately good to know as I think about my marketing plan.

thanks a bunch!

BG

 

[Ogma]

Thanks @Ogma

I've got the cover done (sorry should've mentioned it) and working on the marketing plan/author platform as we speak.

Am not familiar with Vellum. Will Vellum lead to a professional looking work? Sounds from what you said that I can't escape the idea of learning about typesetting either way. Can you explain why that is? I was kind of hoping not to have to acquire a skill as I am learning the life of a self-publisher is to wear many hats and my closet is getting full of them each day. Any idea what it typically costs (range?) to pay someone to do the typesetting?

For proofing, where does one go to find proof-readers? Any help understanding typical costs would be helpful.

thanks

Brendan

Vellum is popular because it gives a professional sheen to it, though it has only a certain number of variations in type etc. so someone familiar with them would recognise a book produced with it. Bear in mind, you don't need anything really for an ebook. You can load up a word version to kdp as long as it's formatted correctly. Typesetting is a bigger issue in paperbacks.

Knowing typesetting conventions is advisable even if you're getting someone else to do it because everyone makes mistakes and you want to be comfortable with what you get back for review. You want to minimise the work for that person by having the manuscript in the correct format before you hand it over. Here's a handy list. For example, a friend of a friend wrote a book where he put in two spaces after every sentence. It's an old convention, probably defunct, and certainly not applicable to a published novel.
Also make sure you include a copyright page. (You can look in any book to see the rough format).

There are lots of editing services and proofreaders. You can get friends to do it as well. And yourself of course. The best option is a mixture of both. I think the typical lower end rate for a professional proofreader is 1 to 2 cent per word, but some are more expensive than that.

 

[Bren G]

Vellum is popular because it gives a professional sheen to it, though it has only a certain number of variations in type etc. so someone familiar with them would recognise a book produced with it. Bear in mind, you don't need anything really for an ebook. You can load up a word version to kdp as long as it's formatted correctly. Typesetting is a bigger issue in paperbacks.

Knowing typesetting conventions is advisable even if you're getting someone else to do it because everyone makes mistakes and you want to be comfortable with what you get back for review. You want to minimise the work for that person by having the manuscript in the correct format before you hand it over. Here's a handy list. For example, a friend of a friend wrote a book where he put in two spaces after every sentence. It's an old convention, probably defunct, and certainly not applicable to a published novel.
Also make sure you include a copyright page. (You can look in any book to see the rough format).

There are lots of editing services and proofreaders. You can get friends to do it as well. And yourself of course. The best option is a mixture of both. I think the typical lower end rate for a professional proofreader is 1 to 2 cent per word, but some are more expensive than that.

Thanks so much @Ogma. Very helpful!

 

[Brian G Turner]

does KDP have the typesetting tools as part of their package or do you have to 'load' a finished manuscript into it?

All you have to do is load a Word doc into KDP. So long as your Word doc is properly formatted, your book should be, too.

However, note my comment about stylesheets above - some people use spaces and returns to create gaps in their manuscripts, ie, between chapters, which is absolutely not the way to do it!

Another pointer with KDP, though, is that you can check a copy of your book before publishing in public. For the Kindle version, that means you can download a Kindle version to check through - for paperback, you can order a pre-sale copy. There is a previewer already built into KDP, but I like to do the above anyway, just to be sure.

 

[Bren G]

All you have to do is load a Word doc into KDP. So long as your Word doc is properly formatted, your book should be, too.

However, note my comment about stylesheets above - some people use spaces and returns to create gaps in their manuscripts, ie, between chapters, which is absolutely not the way to do it!

Another pointer with KDP, though, is that you can check a copy of your book before publishing in public. For the Kindle version, that means you can download a Kindle version to check through - for paperback, you can order a pre-sale copy. There is a previewer already built into KDP, but I like to do the above anyway, just to be sure.

Good to know - thanks @Brian G Turner !

 

[Staggerlee]

Hi folks,

a wonderful thing about this site is the wealth of experiences and so, I ask for advice of those who have gone before me, specifically about the 'last mile' of producing the book. My manuscript has gone through beta reading, and I've reworked top to bottom many, many times over the past three years. Now, I am working through and amending the manuscript with a freelance editor. It will take me a month or so to finish this stage and tightening and polish. (So far, I am leaning to KDP.)

As such, I wanted to look ahead at what's next in terms of making it ready for print (not marketing/building a platform as that is an entirely different ball of wax and would prefer to leave that for another discussion if ok!). There's a lot of advice spread out among the forum and much of it several years old so thought I'd ask here in 2020.

What advice would you give on :

1. Proofing?
2. Typesetting?
3. Any other things needed to get production ready?
4. What other things are important/to consider at this stage?

thanks!

Bren

I was in the same boat last month, but published now and have the headache of promoting it

On my first book my wife did all the checking but I discovered Grammarly afterwards, its free and runs in word checking everything as you write it, makes a massive difference.

You still have to check the work afterwards to be safe but it makes life so much easier.

Good luck on the book!

 

[apocalypsegal]

I was kind of hoping not to have to acquire a skill as I am learning the life of a self-publisher is to wear many hats and my closet is getting full of them each day.

Yeah, that's too bad. Being a self publisher means doing all the work a regular publisher would do for you. Covers, formatting, back cover copy (called a blurb in self publishing for some reason), ads and everything else. You can hire out some tasks, but you still have to understand them, or you'll be taken by some slob who can't be bothered to do a proper job.

Amazon isn't going to do any of the work. Back in the day, you could pay for services for print books through CreateSpace, but they're long gone and when Amazon rolled it into KDP they didn't keep any of that.

 

[Bren G]

I was in the same boat last month, but published now and have the headache of promoting it

On my first book my wife did all the checking but I discovered Grammarly afterwards, its free and runs in word checking everything as you write it, makes a massive difference.

You still have to check the work afterwards to be safe but it makes life so much easier.

Good luck on the book!

Thanks @Staggerlee and welcome to the forum.

I am still muddling through but near the goal post. I've ordered proof copies as @Brian G Turner suggested and hope to get them next week. The thing I am struggling with is, that Adobe Indesign seems to be the main choice for formatting. So any small changes made after format are funneled through the person I contracted to do the formating. I subscribed to Indesign as I hoped to do the final tweaking myself before converting to epub but I found that the software version he has and mine (which is current on creative cloud) caused some formatting inconsistencies that my limited experience in ID cannot easily overcome. So it's made me entirely dependant on him which is costly. I feel like I went about this wrong, so I won't beat myself up about it as I have been forced to learn much. @Ogma 's advice on understanding the basics of typesetting concepts was bang on. I'd have drowned without it by now.

Would love to understand from others - how smoothly did things go from final draft to final manuscript? What process and sequences did you use to get it done? What was the thing that made it easy? What did you learn the hard way?

 

[Bren G]

I was in the same boat last month, but published now and have the headache of promoting it

On my first book my wife did all the checking but I discovered Grammarly afterwards, its free and runs in word checking everything as you write it, makes a massive difference.

You still have to check the work afterwards to be safe but it makes life so much easier.

Good luck on the book!

PS - I forgot to mention - good luck on your book too! Please PM me the title.

 

[Brian G Turner]

The irony is, for KDP all you need is a Word .doc, and you can use the same with Draft2Digital for wider publishing at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and iBooks.

For help using styles for formatting, I put this up a few years back:

How to use Styles in MS Word for formatting a manuscript

I've used Microsoft Word since the early 1990's, and learned to simply format text as I came across it. This is now the wrong way to do it. Or, more simply put, it's a great way of making things difficult for yourself when formatting a manuscript for agents or publishers. As I found out as I...

www.sffchronicles.com

 

[Bren G]

The irony is, for KDP all you need is a Word .doc, and you can use the same with Draft2Digital for wider publishing at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and iBooks.

For help using styles for formatting, I put this up a few years back:

How to use Styles in MS Word for formatting a manuscript

I've used Microsoft Word since the early 1990's, and learned to simply format text as I came across it. This is now the wrong way to do it. Or, more simply put, it's a great way of making things difficult for yourself when formatting a manuscript for agents or publishers. As I found out as I...

www.sffchronicles.com

Thank you @Brian G Turner. I'll check it out!