‘I wrote a book. Now what?’
It’s a question I often get in my DM on Instagram. The idea of self-publishing a book sounds romantic, special, and also often a dream that won’t come true. Or is it possible?
In recent years I’ve had the opportunity to help many authors publishing their book. Does that make me a publisher? No, not at all, but I can help you self-publish your book. Did I grab your attention? Then read on.
Novel or biography
You finally got your story on paper. Whether it’s a true story or fiction, it’s ready to be published. An important tip; if you’re serious about publishing your book, hire an editor first. Not only does he or she remove the errors, but also checks the sentence structure and the storyline. When the manuscript is finished, I will help you choose the style and appearance of the book, by making the layout.
I make sure the body text, headings, and subheadings are all the same size and line spacing. I create the file in Indesign, a professional layout program that also gives your book a professional look. I divide chapters, add page numbers and check whether line breaks are done correctly.
But we’re not there yet. Although everyone knows the quote ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’, in reality readers, look at the cover first before reading what the book is about. That’s why it’s important to make a killer cover that still stands out even in thumbnail size.
In the end we have two files, the cover and the content. Based on your choice of where you want the book printed, I’ll send the files to the printer or help you in the process of self-publishing your book on Amazon. Do you then need a website or webshop to start selling your book yourself? Then I can certainly help you with that too!
Picture book
Publishing a picture book requires an extra very important step, namely the illustrations. The investment for a picture book can therefore be higher than for a reading book. Have you already downloaded the free e-book on this website, which already contains a lot of tips, about making and publishing a picture book? Then you are already ahead of the rest!
In the e-book you can read about the structure of a picture book, the number of words, making a storyboard and finally publishing. Are you serious about your book? Ask an editor to check your story. While you were writing the story, you may have already had ideas about the illustrations. I often read the question, how expensive illustrations are. You can make it as cheap and as expensive as you want. There are authors who learn to draw themselves, authors who use their five-year-old’s drawings (really, I’m not kidding), authors who buy illustrations from third world countries (because that’s so cheap, regardless the quality) and authors who dare to invest in quality and reliability.
The investment for a good illustration also depends on the complexity of the illustration, which technique is used, the size of the illustrations and of course the number of illustrations. Whichever illustrator you choose, make sure you make good agreements about the number of illustrations, the deadline and the user rights.
When I illustrate a book on assignment, I usually let the design and the illustration run together. This way the client sees immediately, how text and illustration work together. The advantage of this, is that we can still fine-tune the illustrations at an early stage, if things don’t go well with the text.
But even if you already have illustrations, I can sure help you with the layout and publishing of your picture book. If you want to have a hardcover printed, I have the perfect printer for that. Are you on a tight budget? Then choose to publish the softcover book at Amazon. I help you through that proces too.
Conclusion
Publishing your book is possible! Do you want to know more? Contact me for a free consult about the possibilities within your budget.