What does it take to self-publish a book/novel?
I have been considering self-publishing my work for some years now. I would like some advice from people who have self-published before.
I have not self published before, but would advise against it. These days, almost anyone can self publish from a variety of websites. If you're considering the cost, self publishing can be more expensive in the end. Self publishing means all the work relies on you. The advertising, putting it together/layout, editing, EVERYTHING. Essentially, the whole book and whether it's a hit or miss is on you. You are the editor, the agent, the publisher, the publicist, etc. If publishing is something you want to do seriously, especially novels, I would consider spending that time and effort into at least finding an agent or submitting to a publisher. In the end, I think you will find your work will be better off in the hands of a professional.
Honestly, I would only consider self publishing if it's not a novel. A poetry book might be acceptable if you write poems. Recipe books are also good to self publish, I think. You might even be able to get away with a children's book. But, personally, for novels, I would leave that to professionals. Self publishing, as I said, can be a lot of work and require all your attention. And if anything goes wrong, it's on you.
Hope that helps you some!
Self-Publishing used to have a stigma that is gone now., These days, it is considered the wave of the future. Google the name Joanna Penn, or JF Penn, she has a lot of good info on her site that should help you.
As for the best place to use? I'd suggest createspace.com
I would argue that some of the stigma remains because there is still no quality filter on self published material.
It all depends on where you want to focus your efforts. Self publishing is very easy to do, but it's very hard to be successful at it. Where as traditional publishing is very hard to get into, but you have people helping to make it a success. I self published my book only after going through the traditional process. After 50+ rejections I just needed to get the book out so I could move on to other projects. Self publishing helped me do that. However, as of right now, it has done little to nothing on the path to making me successful.
There are a number of sites you can go to to self publish a book. I self published the first book in my mystery series call Jonas Watcher: The Case of the Running Bag. Three are sites I can recommend; LULU, CreateSpace and Smashwords. You can publish your book for no money and you can get it distributed on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple iTunes.
You have to market and work on getting the physical book out there on your own.
I hope this helps
Gene Poschman Author of Jonas Watcher: The Case of the Running Bag.
Look into the process and then start shopping software. Depending on if you have Windows, iOS, or Linux there are options for each even some open source programs. I would suggest Sigil, it's free and easy to use after a minor learning curve. Once you know the in's and out's of the program, practice! Don't just give it a go, while it's mainly file importing there is a need for code writing and metadata knowledge. Be wary of sites that offer free publishing, there is always a catch. Amazon offers a free service however they stipulate you may only retail your novel on Amazon for the first three months, which I consider anyway, the books Golden Age and when it stands the best chance of making high returns. Honestly, I recommend researching desktop and indie publishers in your area, albeit, if you are intent on self-publishing, educate yourself to the full extent. Sites like www.freecodecamp.com, eBook Architects and Preditors and Editors, are good sources of information and learning centers. You can also check out my new weekly article series here on Hub called 'A Subtle Madness: Self-Publishing, where I will be covering this topic in extent. Good luck!
by M. T. Dremer 9 years ago
Has your experience with self publishing been positive or negative?For those of you who have self published a book (either physical or ebook), how would you say your experience was overall? Please consider things like production costs, self promotion, sales and reviews. What is the best thing about...
by cashmere 10 years ago
I want to know what a good website would be to get books printed from. I have a self published ebook, that I want to convert into a printed book and would appreciate knowing the names of some self publishing websites.Thanks for your help
by Brenda Trott, M.Ed 10 years ago
Have you self-published a book? Share your resources!I have three books ripe for printing. They need to edited and properly formatted. I thought it would be easy to find someone on Odesk or Elance to get that done. I'm super disappointed. I have bids coming in with broken...
by thecollecktor 13 years ago
I recently published a book using Lulu.com. The next step is to market it so others might discover it with the hope of building sales. Lulu offers marketing along with editing and other services to help in this effort all at a cost. Marketing a self published book is...
by Matthew Dawson 13 years ago
What is your opinion, Is it better to self publish or find a publisher and get a contract...Now days with modern technology as it is it has become easy for an author to self publish. However is it really worth the time that it takes to also self market? I have found that the old traditional way of...
by Sandra Greaney 12 years ago
If you self published your own book, how long does it take to make money from it?
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |