In an earlier blog (What
Happens After the End, 9/22/15), I chronicled the steps in traditional
publishing. Another option which is gaining a large slice of the market share
is self-publishing. Writers no longer have to wait up to two years to see their
book on a store shelf. It can take as little as 24 hours for an e-book to be on
sale at Amazon.
There are two routes in self-publishing. The first is
working with a so-called vanity press. In this method, the author pays a publisher
several thousand dollars to go through the publishing process. This might be
good for a book that promotes a business and has limited circulation. The
second is indie publishing where the book is published free by an on-line store
such as Amazon for worldwide distribution.
The process is easy. All you need to do is upload the
manuscript, a blurb, keywords, and a cover. That should take five to ten
minutes. If you are using Amazon,
they will take a bit of time to review then within 24 hours you’ll be published.
Edit carefully before you submit your story. If it’s within
your budget, hire a professional editor for this. After that you’ll need to
format by using the easy to follow directions in Building Your Book for Kindle, which is free on Amazon.
Have a book blurb ready that describes your story. Examples
can be found on the back of book covers or by browsing through book pages on
Amazon. Decide ahead of time what your categories are. These are equivalent to directions
to the particular stack in a library where your book may be found. You are also
allowed up to seven keywords
or keyword phrases. These are used to direct readers to your book, so select
these carefully.
E-publishing is easy and your book will never be out of
print until you decide to remove it. You or your student might want to start
with short stories.—Quinn
