How To Publish Your Book In 5 Easy Steps
Every year, individuals spend thousands of dollars on publishing a book before having sold one copy. While professional publishers are valuable, they can be a heavy strain on your pockets. This easy 5 step guide will help you publish your first book on a budget.
1. Write The Book
This probably seems like a worthless step but I don’t want to make any assumptions. Writing the book is easy for some and torture for others.
If you feel you’re a decent writer, go ahead and start writing your book. It doesn't matter how sucky it is the first time around. Just get it all out.
It may help to outline your book first; deciding chapter names and subjects (also known as a table of contents).
If you are completely in the dark about how to format the book, Createspace has great formatting templates here to help guide you along the process.
If you’re unsure of the size you want for your book, find a book (in your home or in a bookstore) and look up the dimensions on Amazon.com.
You’ll be able to find them by scrolling down the section titled “product details.” Once you download the preferred format,you can begin writing your book directly into the document, deleting any placeholder text.
2. Edit The Book
I’ll admit, this is my least favorite part of the publishing process. I hated editing my book because it meant I had to read and reread my book several times but editing is crucial to the book publishing process.
Some may like to edit in sections; finishing each chapter and then editing it immediately after.
Others, may prefer to finish the book entirely and then edit it once finished. Either way, I always advise to edit your own work at least once thus ensuring you present the clearest copy possible when handing if off to someone else
Once you’ve done a thorough self edit, the next step is to ask a friend or hire someone to do a second (or third) edit for you.
There are four types of edits; Developmental edit, Substantial edit, Copy edit and Proofreading. Click here to become more familiar with the different types of edits and choose the one that works best for you.
3. Format The Book
Hopefully, you took my advice at the beginning of the article and formatted your book before starting. If not, no worries, you can do it now. If you already have a template in mind, go ahead and format your book.
For the rest of us, click here to find a format that fits your desires. Formatting your book means you have to consider all of the technical details of your book.
How will the chapters start? In the middle of the page or at the top? Will your chapters be separated at all? Will your name and book title be at the top? Will it be at the bottom?Will you include and acknowledgements page? What font will you use? Will your pages be numbered? If you’re using a Createspace template, many of these questions will already be answered for you. If not, refer to step 1 and the link above to guide you.
4. Finalize The Book
This may be the trickiest part of the process. After writing, editing and formatting your book, now you need to finalize it with a book cover design.
You can use sites like Canva to create your own custom book cover, you can hire someone to do it for you, or you can use a template on Createspace. Fiverr, a site where professionals provide services for $5 and up, is an inexpensive option for book covers.
In this phase, you should also decide whether or not you will have text on the back cover of your book and what you would like that text to be.
Hiring a graphic designer such as TK Consulting and 4th Park is another way to get a custom book cover made.
Lastly, and most importantly, if you have not decided on a title for your book, this is your last chance to do so. Consider what your book is about. Write down different titles until you find one you love.
5. Publish The Book
Yay! You made it to the last step. This is the easiest part of the process. There are several ways to publish a book, but for this article, I am only going to explore three.
The first is to hire a publishing company. I recommend this route for those who have the money to spend. Companies like 16th & Joan or Lincross Publishing and so many others can help you get your book published.
Secondly, you could hire a literary agent. This step is more complex. In this instance you would need to pitch your book to an agent . This could take longer but it's definitely an option.
The third and most cost efficient route is to publish your book on Createspace.com. Once you create an account, you can walk through each step of the process by following the prompts on the site.
You can choose your ISBN number, upload your document directly into the site and send your book to all buying platforms such as Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com all for free!
All done!
