Make your independently published work a reality!
Today we are going to dive into three distinct ways to become independently published. There are other ways, but these are the top three ways to make your independently published work become a reality.
This is the third blog in a series that will cover the most popular questions I often hear:
- What does “Indie Publishing” mean?
- Who are the most famous indie authors and how did they do it?
- What are the three distinct ways to go about publishing?
- What are the top ten questions authors should ask an indie publisher before committing to one? You can go here to read more about indie publishing and go here to learn how you can start on adding your name to the list of successful indie authors.
Today we are going to cover three distinct ways to become independently published.
There are more ways, of course, but these are the top three ways to make your independently published work become a reality.
- Go it alone, by self-publishing. Many have and some have done well as we learned in the post about successful indie authors. Some of the tasks for this route are:
- Find your own editor ensuring they are the right one for you and your book—an expert in that subject matter is key here and I’ll go over that in a later post.
- Find your own cover designer, but not before you choose a trim size that your printer can handle.
- Find a layout person that knows good PMU (page make up) for books. Self-published authors will want a book layout expert and not just an aesthetic designer or artist. This is a very important distinction! A book layout expert will be able to follow printer specifications as it relates to safety zones, gutter margin given a particular page count, and understand the digital printing process. These are only a few examples of what a good book layout professional needs to know. There are also some tried-and-true typesetting rules that the big book publishers follow, and SDP ensures these rules apply to all of our books. For example, choosing the best fonts for the main text and others which are ideal for display heads—and yes, there are distinctions! They’ll need to know when drop folios are used, consider running head content, typical order of frontmatter and backmatter appearance, and more.
- Self-published authors will need to figure out the rest in order to make their book widely available globally and be registered with as many published book databases as possible.
- Hire a consultant or professional staff that can assist you to establish yourself as your own publishing company. You will enjoy 100% of the royalties, set your own retail price and pay cost to print your book as opposed to a wholesale or discounted retail price the online pubs give you. You are in charge of pulling your own sales reports, tracking sales, adjusting the trade discount, retail price, handling the marketing and fulfillment. This method works for some who have the time, trust the professional assisting them and have some knowledge of the process to ensure things are being done the right way. These professionals are hard to find as most are full-service indie publishers.
- Go through a professional indie publisher that will do it all for you (if you have the budget for it). Using their professional imprint, they will obtain the ISBN number, EAN bar code(s), make your book available for sale globally, track sales, etc. Most offer professional editorial services, book design and layout experts, artists, and other professionals in the publishing industry. There are many to choose from and they offer a wide range of different services, from the full gamut of publishing services, to a la carte services.
In the next several posts, I will address the benefits of using a professional independent (indie) publisher, including the top ten questions to ask each one before committing. In the meantime, I encourage you to click here and download my Top Ten Questions to Ask a Publisher.
As you can see there is a lot that goes into becoming independently published. SDP Publishing is here to help you through every step to ensure that your book is everything you want it to be! It’s all we do and we do it all very well! Go here to see our customer testimonial page.
