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    Self-publishing Handbook
    Self-publishing Handbook
    Self-publishing Handbook
    Ebook110 pages47 minutes

    Self-publishing Handbook

    By Julia Fellner

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    About this ebook

    Based on my own experience of self-publishing my second novel To be a Hero, I have compiled a Handbook to guide you through the self-publishing process. Originally a blog series, the Handbook starts, by helping you decide whether self-publishing is for you.

    In order to produce a quality book, topics from editing, over cover design to typesetting are explained. Next, legal considerations and different distribution channels, as well as financial concerns are addressed. Finally, the biggest section focuses on marketing - the bread and butter of any author, offering advice on how to build up to the release and continue creating impactful marketing afterwards.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJulia Fellner
    Release dateSep 10, 2015
    ISBN9781311176820
    Self-publishing Handbook
    Author

    Julia Fellner

    I wrote my debut novel, Revealed, at the age of sixteen. After this first experience with the publishing industry I wanted to become more entrepreneurial than just writing. Therefore, I self-published my second novel, To be a Hero and a short story collection, Adventure Stories of Pirates, Robots and Coconuts, also very much enjoying the management side of the process. I graduated from Vienna University with a Bachelor in English linguistics, literature and cultural studies and am completing a Master degree in Management in the Creative Economy at Kingston University London. Currently, I live in London, where I am working on exciting new projects.

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      Book preview

      Self-publishing Handbook - Julia Fellner

      Introduction

      Introducing the Handbook to Self-publishing your own Book series

      I’m introducing a new blog series called Handbook to Self-publishing your own book, which takes you step by step through the self-publishing process. My advice is based on the experiences I made when I published my novel To be a Hero.

      I will start off by giving you tips on polishing your manuscript via self-editing. Afterwards I will give you tips on finding a professional editor. The next step will be how to produce a book, ranging over topics of what to consider when hiring a cover artist to what you should keep in mind when sending you manuscript to the printers. Then, I will discuss the issues of choosing a way to distribute your book and cover some basic financial terms. Finally, I will give advice on how to market your book, online and offline.

      Parting of Ways: whether to get your book published traditionally or via self-publishing

      So you have your finished novel or maybe a novella, short story or other type of text and want to get it out into the world, available for anyone to read?

      There are three basics paths, which you can go down. Two of them are traditional publishing paths and the third one is self-publishing.

      #1 Getting an Agent

      If you want to reach one of the really big publishing houses, the kind you find in every bookstore, you need an agent. This kind of publishing house doesn’t accept unsolicited submissions.

      How do you get an agent? Luck, patience and lot of works.

      You will need to write lots and lots of query letters. Apart from a cover letter for your query, you most likely will need to write a synopsis and maybe attach an excerpt from your finished manuscript.

      Then you hit send and wait and wait and wait. This process of waiting can take from weeks to months. In this time you will probably get a lot of rejections.

      But don’t let yourself get down by rejections. Literary agents only keep a very small lists of writers they represent. They will only take on a new one, when they are absolutely passionate about the manuscript. And that’s good. You don’t want someone, who’s not excited about your work as you are, to represent your work.

      Another possible reason is that your manuscript simply may not fit into the agents’ catalogue. This is often the case with genres of stories, which are considered to be difficult to market to a mainstream audience. In such a case, the other two options are a better chance at getting published.

      If only rejections and not a single letter of interest has arrived, you stand at a crossroads. Is it because the story wasn’t strong enough, needs more revising or is it because no agent at the moment would be interested in it?

      If your answer is that you believe your story, after rounds of revising and feedback from other people, is already the best draft it can be (without a professional editor), then you should consider the next two possible paths.

      #2 Independent Publishing Houses

      In theory, there are two types of independent publishing houses: the good and the bad. The good ones operate on the principal that they want to tell stories that would get overlooked on the book market of larger publishers. Maybe, they are simply passionate entrepreneurs who run smaller publishing houses, which receive fewer submissions because they aren’t that famous.

      Then there are the bad ones, the so-called vanity press, the publishers whose business models is to find authors who are so eager to see their book published, they won’t notice how they are being robbed blind.

      Therefore, if you do choose to go down this route, it is important to be careful. If the publisher requires a fee for even looking at your submission, doesn’t provide an editor or demands you

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