Crazy Croatians

Monday, April 18, 2011

Self-Publishing a Paperback Through Amazon.com

   I decided to go this route instead of trying to find an agent willing to publish my book as it is a 0% rejection route and it is basically no charge to do it for the writer.It just takes time.
   Step 1. Write your book in some word processor like MS Word or OpenOffice or whatever. I use OpenOffice as it is free to download and I'm poor. However you like to type up your book is up to you. If you put images into the book you need to make sure to follow certain rules (read up on these at the Createspace.com site) There are also certain rules to follow about margin size (it basically depends on how many pages you have in the book.  Again check Createspace.com).
   Step 2. go to Amazon.com and register for an account if you don't already have one. (fill out profile info if you want to too). It is needed in the next step.
   Step 3. go to Createspace.com and sign-in. Amazon uses Createspace as there publishing house so to speak & that is who will be creating the paperback books that you sell or buy yourself.
  Step 4. Decide what size you want your book to be; there are several choices to choose from on Createspace and the choice you make will affect certain things; it will alter page count and thus might also alter margin size requirements. I made the mistake of submitting my book with incorrect margin sizes twice because I didn't read the requirements carefully. So make sure you follow the rules precisely or you'll end up resubmitting your book several times.
  Step 5: Once you've gotten your book sized to your satisfaction you'll need to save your book in .pdf file format for submitting to Createspace.com. Also you need to either upload a self-made cover-page or choose one of Createspace's cover-page templates. I chose to make my own cover and hunted down a free to use image from  http://digitalmedia.fws.gov/ which is a place you can download outdoors images & use them by giving credit.(Seems like most places want to charge for using their images).
   Step 6: Createspace reviews what you submit for a time (it took them about a day for my book). If the cover image and interior file passes inspection you order a proof copy to be sent to you which will take from 1 to 10 days to reach you depending on how much you're willing to spend on postage.
  Step 7: You receive the proof paperback and look it over carefully to make sure it looks perfect. My first proof ended up having about 8 to 10 little errors and also I moved the text on the cover image just a bit to center it better. (So basically the proof wasn't perfect yet). I resubmitted my cover image and interior files again. and once again they reviewed them for about a day.
    Step 8: The files passed their inspection and so I ordered a second proof copy. (note that it does cost some money to get your proof copy-it's not free. For me it was somewhere around $9.00 to $10.00 for the book and another $6.00 or so for postage-the cheapest rate. It all depends again on book size and page count as to the book price.)
    Step 9: Receive the second proof and review it for perfection. If it is perfect then tell Createspace that the proof is acceptable and tell them to put it up for sale on Amazon.com. If and when someone buys the book it will be published by Createspace (it is a POD or publish on demand service) so no books are made unless they are bought. You'll need to choose a price for your book which should be a bit over the "price threshold" which is what it costs to print the book. Ex: if it costs $9.00 to print it and you price it at $10.00, you'll make $1.00 off each book that sells. There's some optional things you can do once you start selling: Pro Plan, and EDC. Pro Plan does several things; lets you earn a larger royalty share, it costs less when you order your own books, and you gain access to EDC. EDC, or Expanded Distribution Channel, basically makes the book available to a much larger audience of buyers, outside of Amazon.com . Retailers, bookstores, libraries, academic institutions, wholesalers, and distributors. Through the EDC you have the potential to distribute your work to thousands of retail and wholesale outlets throughout the U.S. The two optional plans cost $39.00 each to add to a book, but to me it looks like it could be well worth getting- at least the Pro Plan. But I'll probably get both.
   So, thats it to making your own paperback book and self-publishing it on Amazon.com. If you thought that was complex just read my next post which will cover how I self-published my book for the Kindle.

No comments :

Post a Comment