Sun Days on Orcas | Publish your book

|||  SUN DAYS ON ORCAS by EDEE KULPER |||

I want to take this opportunity to encourage you to write the book you’ve always wanted to write, and publish it! Figuring out how to self-publish can feel vague and scary if you’ve never done it, so I’m going to break it down for you here so you realize how relatively easy it is, and hopefully I won’t forget anything major.

I’m helping a friend of mine self-publish a book of short stories, and I’m taking him through the very process I learned how to do a year ago. There are all kinds of publishing companies to use, but I will focus on BookBaby in particular because their website is extremely easy to use, and their staff are always available if you have questions. The price of your book will be a few dollars higher than if you were to use a different company, but for first-timers I think it’s worth it. Then you can branch out to research and experiment with others. The researching and experimenting alone can take a lifetime, which is why I quickly settled on BookBaby when publishing Life on Orcas Island.

To clarify before we get going, this is for you folks who already know what you want to write, or you’ve already written it and you’ve just been waiting until someone or something comes along to help you figure out the next steps.

Locals who are featured in Life on Orcas Island, seeing the book for the first time at Orcas Center several months ago.

Step 1: So you have a manuscript. Or you’re ready to write one. Write that thing. Enjoy the process, edit it as much as you want and well as you can, and move on.

Step 2: Get an editor. I have someone I highly recommend, so feel free to email me for her contact information (edeekulper@gmail.com). If you’d like to find one on your own, go to Reedsy.com. There, you can find any type of professional you need for your book – an editor, graphic designer, illustrator, typographer, etc. Email your manuscript to your new editor, or if you’re using Reedsy’s messaging platform, which is easy and great, send your manuscript off (online) to the person you chose and have them work out all the kinks.

Step 3: In the meantime, get a designer on Reedsy.com, too, who will give your book the look you want it to have. They will translate the flavor of your title and innards into a cover design (several that you get to choose from), fonts that give the right feel, and a layout inside that looks the way you imagine it. If you don’t imagine anything for the cover and layout, they will do it for you. This is really fun. You look at their past work in-depth right there on the site, choose five potential designers, tell them the gist of your book, and they each give you a quote for how much they will cost you. It’s a super easy system when you’re on it. Once all the quotes come in, you choose which designer you want. Some specialize in cover design or typography or illustration, but I tend to pick someone who has many years of experience in the business with the big publishers. They often know how to do it all, and you can tell by thoroughly perusing all their samples. The quotes you receive will range from outlandish to reasonable. (I’ve done this three times now – not all for my own books). For instance, one quote I received from a designer was $9,000, while another was $1500 for the very same amount of work. Guess which one I chose?

Step 4: Set a deadline on Reedsy and begin corresponding with your professional(s). You’ll likely pay half the total fee for each person you hire up-front through Reedsy’s payment system, and the other half on the date of your deadline. Reedsy will ultimately take 10%, but I think it’s well worth it. I don’t want to have to figure out how to find a pro on my own, so this is fantastic, in my opinion. Send sample pieces of your manuscript to the designer so they can work on creating the feel you want as your editor is wrapping things up. The designer will send you messages with cover samples, font samples, and layout samples for you to choose from. This is one of the funnest things in life, I think.

Step 5: Send your fully edited manuscript (again, in Word, not on paper) to your designer to be put in their layout and order a proof printed through BookBaby. A proof is a copy of the book that you can hold in your hands. It costs $99 for this copy, but to me it is essential to see how everything looks in real life. Mail it to the editor for a final edit before giving the okay to BookBaby to publish your book for good. An ISBN is assigned to your book by BookBaby when you have a proof printed. It’s $49, and it will always link BookBaby as the publisher of your self-published book. Alternatively, you can buy an ISBN on bowker.com for $125 (or 10 for $295), and this will cause your name or self-publishing company to be listed as the publisher instead, which is preferable.

Step 6: Get an LCCN – Library of Congress Control Number – by going to https://locexternal.servicenowservices.com/auth, creating an account, and filling in the simple online form. Both the ISBN and LCCN numbers will be printed on the copyright page of your book.

Step 7: Once any final edits and graphic design changes have been made after reviewing the proof, officially publish the book using BookBaby’s easy online forms, and you’ll have a copy shipped to you guaranteed within ten business days. All books are printed in the US, so anytime you want to order another shipment, the ten business day guarantee stands. You must order a minimum of 25 copies, but the higher the bulk order, the lower the price is per copy. For your first order, you will set the retail price of the book based on BookBaby’s online calculator when you’re checking out, and it will tell you the minimum price you can sell it for. It will also show you what profit you will make for whatever price you put in the calculator. Basically, your cost of publishing your book will be whatever 25 copies (or however many you order) costs plus tax. If you want it to be available to anyone online or for any book store to order, pay an additional $399 for distribution, and BookBaby will do the work to put you on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and others.

I could write more, but this is the backbone in order to demystify the process and encourage you to publish that book you’ve always had on the backburner. There are as many publishing methods as there are authors, and there are many publishers to choose from. Some will print your books in China, in which case they will cost much less per copy. Some authors prefer using IngramSpark to self-publish. I have this method spelled out because BookBaby makes it easy.

Cost-wise, it may be possible to publish a beautiful book for under $5,000. All said and done, mine cost $3,900 and I’m quite happy with it. This isn’t a money-making endeavor, necessarily, but if it’s something you’ve just got to do, do it.

Have fun, and live out your literary dreams!