I have a dream of Madrigal doing a Spanish translation.
- SWAMI-FEEL-GOOD-PAPERBACK-COVER SMALL.jpg (758.04 KiB) Viewed 41921 times
So I Self Published a Book Today
So I Self Published a Book Today
Available on Amazon in ebook and paperback format. Free with Kindle unlimited.
I have a dream of Madrigal doing a Spanish translation.
This is called marketing. But if you are interested in publishing a book or have done so, there's also a lot of weird details that might be worth talking about.
I have a dream of Madrigal doing a Spanish translation.
This is called marketing. But if you are interested in publishing a book or have done so, there's also a lot of weird details that might be worth talking about.
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HighlyIrregular II
- Posts: 483
- Joined: Thu May 26, 2022 10:50 pm
- Formerly: BarII
Re: So I Self Published a Book Today
Congrats. Something similar happened to me. The locksmith finally told me to write the manufacturer. He's not a swami but he knows people. He's in Bensonhurst.
Re: So I Self Published a Book Today
Here's my self-published book from 2017....
At the time I spent many hundreds of dollars on illustrations but could afford it because I was working 30 hours a weeks as a programmer. Now I'm struggling to break even.
It is available to read online for free:
https://guide4christmas.com/read-it/
And I also made a memory game using the cartoons....
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... 4christmas
At the time I spent many hundreds of dollars on illustrations but could afford it because I was working 30 hours a weeks as a programmer. Now I'm struggling to break even.
It is available to read online for free:
https://guide4christmas.com/read-it/
And I also made a memory game using the cartoons....
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... 4christmas
Re: So I Self Published a Book Today
Since I've been a member of this forum in one form or another (like the rest of us) for almost two decades, I'd be happy to send a free copy to anyone who might be interested. I'd buy it and ship it to you, no charge. I think it's decent, but would like a little feedback (or not).
Just drop a private message with your mailing address if interested.
Just drop a private message with your mailing address if interested.
Re: So I Self Published a Book Today
This is awesome!!! Congratulations. I'm actually getting certified after... 18 years translating? But it'll take a while. I will keep this in mind.
Meanwhile, I'd love to buy it next month.I actually am curious about how to get published. I have a book that isn't mine that I was thinking about getting published, but the whole process seems kind of daunting.
Re: So I Self Published a Book Today
I never tried the traditional publishing route where you find an agent (the hard part) and the agent tries to sell the book to a publisher. Finding an agent did seem very daunting to me, akin to playing the lottery. There are entire mini-industries of people who feed off the dream of publishing a book.Madrigal wrote: ↑Sun Aug 13, 2023 11:10 pmThis is awesome!!! Congratulations. I'm actually getting certified after... 18 years translating? But it'll take a while. I will keep this in mind.
I actually am curious about how to get published. I have a book that isn't mine that I was thinking about getting published, but the whole process seems kind of daunting.
Self-publishing was not that bad. Some steps I did in no particular order:
1. Find an image online for my cover and commission it's owner to make some changes and give me rights to use it. This turned out to be a jewelry designer in Ukraine and cost me $50 or so.
2. Buy a subscription to Canva and design a cover using said art. Spent several days fiddling with this. You can hire someone to design a cover, but I was interested in doing it myself.
3. Copy edit and proof reading. Another thing which you can hire people, and usually recommended to spend money. Instead I did one more copy edit and three proof reads, one after another. I still missed a few things.
4. Formatting/layout. I used a website called Reedsy. Originally I worked in Google Docs, so I uploaded it for the last 3 or 4 edits. The site as a very simple tool for layout with few options. It looks pretty good, but you get some orphaned paragraphs and stranded sentences. I fixed those as best I could, but it could definitely be better. This is another thing you can pay for.
5. ISBN number. To publish a paperback on Amazon you need an ISBN number, which is handled differently country by country. In the US it's controlled by "Bowker Identifier Services". This was the most expensive part, $350 for 10 ISBNs, which I used 2 so far (ebook and paperback). Their website is a complete anachronism, but Youtube had some walk throughs.
6. Write the extra material - back cover, acknowledgements and so forth.
7. Find a decent picture of myself or get one taken. I just fished through some existing recent photos.
8. Pick a platform for self-publishing. Amazon in this case, or rather 'Amazon Kindle Direct'. Sign up for an account (free). Figure out how to navigate their website (not too hard, plenty of tutorials out there). Upload the book and cover. Set the price - they have a tool for this. I chose the lowest price possible where I would make $2 per copy.
9. Marketing. I bought a program called KDPRocket which gives you insights into keywords, categories and such things on Amazon. It's a good product. You still have the nearly insurmountable problem of getting your book on the first or second page of someone who is keyword searching for books or browsing categories on Amazon.
Your placement in searches depends on books sold, your books sold depends on placement. Catch-22!
I might carefully pay for some advertising. Mostly I'm trying to think of the next book.
Re: So I Self Published a Book Today
Thanks for the info, this is all really useful stuff to know. By the way, I read the first part on Amazon's preview and I'm already hooked, so I'm looking forward to reading it!
I'll let you know when I get it.