I was maybe just above average at school. Fifty-odd years ago, in the days of form orders, on a good week – out of class of fourteen – I might scrape fourth. On a bad week, eighth. Could try harder was the phrase that haunted my school reports, followed swiftly by easily distracted and must concentrate more. I collected Cs in exams and just managed to scrape a second-class honours degree.
At times during the self-publishing process, I became convinced even first-class degree graduates would have trouble understanding the process and cutting through the avalanche of how-tos, each claiming to be the definitive article.
Reedsy.com became my bible. Alongside their matchmaking service that pairs you with (expensive) editors, marketers, and illustrators, they produce an excellent series of pods and blogs. Eventually, I worked out that to reach every reader on the planet I needed to publish a paperback and ebook on Amazon, but also use Ingram Spark to distribute everywhere else - Kobo, Barnes and Noble and Apple Books, libraries and bookshops and, presumable, the International Space Station.
Book edited and proof read, I hopped onto Amazon’s self-publishing platform, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), registered an account and filled in the metadata (title, sub title, synopsis, bio, categories, markets) that will be critical to those libraries and bookstores ordering my book. I added the ISBN that I’d bought and chose the book size and stock.
This is easy! I then uploaded my manuscript and cover, hit the previewer button and waited. Smug. Dum de dum.
OMFG!
It looked nothing like a book. My beautiful cover was completely the wrong size. The interior was just a splatter of words slung across pages and pages of hopelessness – no margins, no indents, no chapter pages. And where’s the title page? The copyright page? They weren’t part of my manuscript, but didn’t they just happen?
I frantically returned to the Reedsy bible, found a blog entitled How To Self-Publish A Book (I’d read it multiple times before) and found the paragraph about formatting. Ah, right. With my old school report ringing in my ear, I read that you had to format your manuscript before uploading.
“Did you not read the instructions,” sniggered my wife.
I did; but they were such a jumble of numbers and terms and measurements that I, well...
I discovered that Amazon had a formatting app called Kindle Create. Great – no need to worry about setting fiddly margins and indents. Seriously. I know I’m not the brightest star in the universe but I just couldn’t find a link to it. Back to Reedsy. Onto YouTube. Another read of the instructions. Another bottle of wine. Concentrate!
In the end, I gave up and simply formatted my Word doc, remembering to add the front and back matter. Adjusted the trim and hit that preview button.
Yes! It looked like a book!
A week later, the proof arrived. My daughter filmed me opening it. Sure enough, it was a book. A proper book! My book! One with 322 perfectly formatted white pages that sat snugly inside an irresistible cover. My name on the front!
So, yes, my book is published and can be purchased in paperback or ebook through all the usual platforms. I have booked a venue for a launch and invited all my friends. I've press-ganged an old friend to interview me, and I'll do a couple of readings. Importantly, I've ordered a Square credit card reading thingy so I can hit them up for a book there and then. Which reminds me, I need to work on my marketing plan.