Would you like to publish your own book? If so (unless you are a celebrity or best-selling author already), it’s unlikely the big publishers will take one look at you! Not to worry, as many of us love small indie-published books anyway to buy in local bookstores. Here are a few tips:
How to write & publish a book may be a good idea, if you have a wonderful book but fail to find a publisher. Don’t spend a lot of money on doing this, as most people lose their life savings, most books don’t sell well. But there is good advice around for aspiring writers.
Writing is a calling. If you are called, answer. Prepare for a life of intense work at curious hours, likely obscurity and regular self-doubt, punctuated by periods of wonder that somehow make it all worthwhile. If this doesn’t appeal, try local government. Paul Kingsnorth (advice for writers)
If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet – then you must write it. Toni Morrison
Thanks to social media, people can take pointless pictures and pollute the world with their dumb shit faster than ever before. Everyone thinks they’re entitled to their 15 minutes of fame. And it’s that narcissism that makes people (who have no business writing a book) think they can write a book. Oliver Markus Malloy
Help to Publish Your Book
- How to Be Published is a lovely guide to publish your book, which covers all the basics. Published (nicely done) by an indie publisher in England, it gives an unbiased guide to the pros and cons of self-publishing (versus traditional publishing) along with other options.
- Lynn’s other book How to Market Your Book is also helpful. These days, most writers are expected to help promote their book, which can fill some introvert scribblers with dread. This book has interviews with writers who give advice how to market without gimmicks, and also includes an overview of book marketing tips.
- If you have a great book but no money, you could try Unbound. This is a crowdfunding platform where if your idea is good enough, others fund publication and receive something in return (a first edition, dinner with the author etc). Paul Kingsnorth did this for his book The Wake, and was nominated for The Booker Prize.
- It’s best to avoid self-publishing unless you have lots of money to lose, as most books don’t sell. But if you are confident that you are going to self-publish, YPS Publishing (Yorkshire) is one of the best. You have to pay to have them print in short runs, but then you keep all the profits, and they can sell items in their own bookstore or arrange wholesale distribution.
- Studio Loire is one of many companies that use free Canva software to create beautiful e-book templates. Also ideal to promote an online course, use the intuitive drag-and-drop interface to add text and images, or change fonts and colours. Choose from multiple page variations, duplicate pages and delete ones you don’t want, to create endless ebook designs.
How Does The Book Publishing Industry Work?
Safe to say that unless you already a best-selling author or famous enough to earn money by your name alone, you’ll find it almost impossible to find a successful contract these days. That’s bad news for creativity, as some of the best-selling books of the last years have been truly awful.
If you are fortunate enough to be published, it will be one to two years before the book is out. If you go the traditional route, you likely won’t have any say over the font, design or cover – but then you won’t be covering the cost, and are likely to sell more copies with a traditional publisher. However, no matter how successful your book, 90% of titles end up being pulped, with leftover copies selling for a pound or two in The Works and similar stores.
As stated above, talent is no guarantee of success. Consider Harper Lee, who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, often regarded as one of the best fiction novels ever written. Yet she was never to write another book until just before her death. Yet the author of Fifty Shades of Grey has become a millionaire, with some say not only is it misogynistic, but possibly one of the worst books ever written. Here are a few lines from the book:
I reach for the orange juice, drinking it down too quickly. It’s delicious, ice cold, and makes my mouth a much better place.
His voice is warm and husky like dark melted chocolate fudge caramel .. or something’.
I must be the colour of the communist manifesto (?!)
He has a coffee which bears a wonderful leaf-pattern imprinted on the milk. ‘How do they do that? I wonder.
Her eyes are brown, like bourbon, but flat.
Good grief.
Another book that is believed to be very badly written is Hitler’s Mein Kampf. As well as being a hateful autobiography of ramblings, students today have tried to read it, and mostly give up as ‘it’s boring’. One student online wrote ‘I’ve read it. It’s pretty lengthy but really unenjoyable. The whole thing is incessant, dull ramblings which even Mussolini called boring’.
Why Does Everyone Want to Publish a Book?
This is the question to beg. The whole world is not full of creative geniuses, so why is it that so many people want a book published? Ego, probably. Most people have no business publishing one, as most people don’t have the vision, imagination and grammar to write a book that will want to be read. The world is not full of Agatha Christie’s and Catherine Cooksons! It takes a special talent to write books that are never put down, and even then it’s hard work. Janey Bennett who wrote The Pale Surface of Things spent years doing her research and two more finding an agent and publisher. It had rave reviews, but not many people know about it. You have to seriously love your craft to write!
Writer Joseph Epstein writes that over 60% of Americans (200 million people) believe they have a book in them. The mind boggles. Things fare better in Iceland, where the population is so creative that 1 in 10 people have published a book in a country with a population of just 300,000. Local writer Solvi Bjorn Siggurdsoon believes it’s because ‘we are nation of storytellers. When it was dark and cold, we had nothing else to do. After independence from Denmark in 1944, literature helped define our identity’.
If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster. Isaac Asimov
