Self-Publishing: Give Your Book a Future

Self-publishing? That is great news. Of course you want a professional-looking book you are proud to give or sell, and that others will take seriously. Below are the absolute must-haves that you will have to pay for if you want your book to be successful and stocked in libraries, bookstores, gift shops, and other places. These are things worth paying for-- investments in your book--and you will not be sorry:

1.An ISBN number. Without this, bookstores can't order your book, Amazon can't sell it. Cost about $100. If you choose a self-publishing company this cost is often included in the price. ISBN stands for "International Standard Book Number" and yours is unique. You can see ISBNs on other books; they're beneath bar code on the back cover. The bar code comes with the ISBN.

2. A professional-looking cover. I can't emphasize this enough: The title and cover are 70 percent of your book's appeal. What's inside won't matter if it doesn't look like a professionally-made book. Hire a graphic artist; many printing companies and self-publishing firms have graphic artists on staff. They know what a professional cover looks like and will work with you and save your book from looking like a self-published book -- which nobody will buy! If you are publishing to sell, do NOT try to draw or design the cover yourself, or let your son do it, or use a photo you took, or use a generic cover. Please do not put a picture of YOURSELF on the cover. A book cover is not a CD or DVD cover. A friend put a photo of her mother on the cover of her poetry book. It's meaningful to her, but potential buyers just see a photo of some old lady. Choose paperback if you are given options.

3. Library of Congress registration. This allows you to sue if your book is plagiarized. About $75. If you choose a self-publishing company this cost is often included in the price. If this is an option in your self-publishing package, accept it and pay to have it done. The forms are confusing, rather like IRS forms, and can take months to straighten out if you mess them up.

4. Register your legal name as a URL/domain name. You do not need to set up a fancy website, maybe just use the one-page mini-site that often comes with the purchase of the URL, which is fairly cheap, a few dollars a month. On the mini-site, post contact information. Readers look for authors online to maybe send you fan letters or ask you to speak to their group or class. And you do not want anyone else building a website with your name as its URL. Don't know how to register a domain name? Go to namesecure.com and they will walk you through it. You do not need "hosting services" unless you plan to build a website. But you do not need a website. Few books are sold through author websites. All you want right now is the domain name and one online page.

5. Register the book title as a URL. If your book's name is Midwest College Planning Guide, register the URL midwestcollegeplanningguide.com, if that name is available. if not, midwestcollegeplanningguide.net or .biz might be available.You get the idea. Put your contact information on this mini-site as well. You do not need a full website for your book

6. Before you send or upload your manuscript to a press, HAVE SOMEONE ELSE PROOFREAD the final manuscript of your book. Mistakes will show potential readers that your book is an amateur production. PLEASE do not count on yourself alone to do the proofreading. I made a bad and expensive mistake thinking I had caught all the errors in a 200-page book. I had not, and had to throw away all those books and have the book corrected and reprinted. Swallow your pride! Choose as your copy editor someone with expertise in the English language, who knows how to spell, punctuate, and so forth. Pay them.

I've self-published two books, and on both of them I made back my investment and had a lot of fun selling them. And my self-publishing firm put the books on Amazon.com and B&N for me; one less job I had to do. Don't pay more than $3000 to a self-publisher for one book. (I paid only $800 for my first book and $1100 for my second.) When the cost rises into the thousands of dollars, they are simply profiting from your ignorance of what it costs to print a book. In these digital days, when 250 copies can be printed in an afternoon, publishing doesn't cost all that much!

Don't be penny-wise and pound-foolish! Be smart, and good luck!