Self Publishing Services for Authors and Self Publishers

Before I get into detail, let me outline the process. To be a successful self publisher, you'll need to wear many hats. You'll need to be an author, editor, cover designer, typographer, paper pusher and marketer. Now, I don't want to discourage you because it can be done. I've done it successfully and so have many of my colleagues. It's a lot of work, but it's also fun to see "your baby" through each step of the process.

If, after reading this article, you think this is too much work and would like to outsource the process, I recommend Mill City Press which will perform all these services for one reasonable, upfront fee. Best of all, you keep the copyright and all the profits.

For those of you who want to do it all, get ready to read, learn, and work. It's an exciting process and I've detailed the steps below, making distinctions when the final product is a book versus an ebook. All my recommendations are based on products and services I've used myself.

Self Publishing Services: Professional Book Editing

After you've finished the first draft of your book, the first self publishing service you'll need is professional book editing. Although I edited my first book myself (and after it was published, I found a few small mistakes I did not catch), hiring a professional editor is highly recommended. Although you are obviously a good writer, editing requires a different level of expertise. While reading over your work, you will come to know the words so well that it will be easy to miss mistakes. And it's also possible to introduce new errors as you're fixing them. Plus, there's nothing worse than to find a glaring error after your book is in print.

Cover Design

Next, you need to think about the cover design of your book or ebook. For an ebook, cover design is important, but not as critical as for a traditional book design, so I recommend that you design your own using this ebook cover design software It's easy because you can simply fill in the pre-designed templates. For those who are publishing a physical book, you'll need a professional cover designer. More on that below. For now, let's finish the process of publishing an ebook.

Once your manuscript has been edited and you've designed your cover, you'll need a software program to make your ebook . This creates a pdf file which you can upload to your web site for download or email to those who have purchased your book.

Self Publishing Services: The Necessity of a Hiring a Professional Cover Designer for a Physical Book

If your book is a physical book, then you must hire a professional cover designer. A physical book requires a professional cover designer. Did you notice that I repeated myself? That's because I'm making an important point. (Even though I did practically everything myself when I published my book including taking the front cover photo, this is the one job I knew I had to outsource.) A professional looking cover is everything because it creates the first impression of your book.

Proper editing, cover design and typesetting are critical to the perception of the quality of your book. You may want to outsource these important self publishing services as they require a special level of expertise.

Book Layout

After your manuscript has been edited, you'll need someone to typeset your book. This is where the font selection and layout occurs. A professional-looking layout is very important to the perception of value of your self-published book. You can learn to do this all-important step yourself by using software such ADOBE InDesign CS2. I used InDesign to lay out my first book and it wasn't hard to learn. One advantage of doing the layout yourself is if you have last minute changes, you won't be charged extra fees.

Whatever you do, please, please, please do not use Word to do your layout. Books that have been typeset in a word processing program have an unprofessional look that is noticeable even to untrained eyes. Ignore this bit of advice and I promise you will regret it.

Self Publishing Services: Book Printers

Next, you'll need a printing quote . Books Just Books is the service I recommend and if you click on the link above, you can find out how much it will cost to print your book based on the page count and the number of copies in your initial print run.

Once you have your book in your hands, you'll want to get started on marketing and promotion. You can hire a PR agent if you have $10,000 to $25,000 set aside for your advertising budget. If not, you must perform these functions yourself. I have many creative suggestions for book promotion and marketing that you can do fairly inexpensively online.

If you have had good experiences with editors, typesetters, cover designers, illustrators, PR agents or any other self publishing services, please submit them with your recommendations using the Contact Us link to the left. Let's help each other succeed.

Once again, if reading this article makes you realize how much expertise is required to publish a book, consider hiring a service that will take care of everything from editing, cover design, typesetting, to creating a web site for your book and a marketing plan. The people at Mill City Press are honest and reputable and will not take the rights or any of the profits for your book assome so-called publishing services companies do. Using a service like this will free you up to do what you do best: focus on your writing.

Self Publishing Services - Self Publish Ebooks

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Copyright © 2006 by Laura Ramirez. All rights reserved. This article may not be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of the author, however, you may link to it from your web site, blog or forum. self publishing services