Self publishing journey
Vanity knows no pain. That old saying just is not true when it comes to what it takes to self publish. Here are the top five lessons I learnt on my way to publishing Peeler and Patriot.
1. Do it yourself. Sounds strange but when you start researching how to do it you will be inundated with people offering to do this that or the other for a small charge. All of those charges add up.
2. Think like a commercial publisher. Should I incur this cost and if I do how many books do I have to sell to recoup.
3. You need less help than you think. I paid a professional reader - very useful feedback on narrative structure; a book designer - not worth the cost; a proof reader - my family and friends did a better job.
4. Even the pros make mistakes. My book designer insisted on a font size for the hardback edition which is too small for anyone over 45.
5. Perhaps more than thirty different roles are involved in the publishing, distribution and selling of a printed book. That's in addition to you the writer. Eliminating some of these roles is essential for self publishers. You want to write after all. Best way to do this is to eliminate some channels. The obvious one is bricks and mortar.
